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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.

Today, we'll be sharing a powerful and versatile summoner build for Path of Exile 3.27: Arakaali's Fang Occultist. It excels at fast mapping and challenging high-difficulty bosses, and with sufficient investment, can even handle Uber-level content.

Notably, this build has significant room for improvement. Even the entry-level version is sufficient to complete the campaign without difficulty; and if you're willing to invest more PoE currency, it offers over 35 million DoT DPS and 1300 Energy Shield, making it a reliable choice for challenging most Atlas and Pinnacle Bosses.

Here, we'll focus on showcasing the ultimate version of this Arakaali's Fang build, including the equipment and skill tree setup required, as well as the final cost. Let's take a look!

How it works?

First, in Path of Exile 3.27, Arakaali's Fang Occultist is a poison-based summoner build that uses a unique dagger to summon damage-immune spiders. Damage is boosted through Minion Damage over Time Multiplier, Minion Attack Speed, and flat chaos/physical damage from Abyss Jewels.

The core mechanic involves using Desecrate, Divine Ire, and Writhing Jar to quickly summon up to 40 spiders. These spiders apply powerful poison effects, making it a powerful but gear-intensive build suitable for endgame boss fights and map farming.

How to increase Minion Attack Speed & DoT Multiplier?

Since the minions summoned by Arakaali's Fang are based on poison damage, the faster their attack speed, the faster they can stack poison, resulting in higher damage. Therefore, Minion Attack Speed is a crucial attribute for this build.

Most of the attack speed increase comes from specific passive skill nodes on three Large Cluster Jewels (such as Spiritual Command) and Increased Effect modifiers that boost minion attack speed. These modifiers can amplify the base attack speed bonus of small nodes, increasing it from 3% to 4%. 

Furthermore, these Cluster Jewels can create new passive tree branches, allowing players to gain multiple small nodes with attack speed bonuses, significantly increasing minion attack speed, especially when combined with Call to the Slaughter passive.

Because we use a large number of small nodes surrounding three Large Cluster Jewels in this build, all these bonuses stack up to provide a significant DPS increase.

Another major source of minion attack speed comes from rings, and this attack speed is further boosted by Accelerating Catalyst.

Since this build is based on poison damage, Minion DoT Multi is also a very important stat, and a large amount of DoT Multi comes from Amanamu's Gaze Ghastly Eye Jewel. However, you need to equip at least 5 Jewels to get the maximum DoT benefit, three socketed in the skill tree and two in equipment.

Abyss Jewels

Speaking of Abyss Jewels, I must remind you that the added flat physical and chaos damage modifiers are very useful, so try to choose the highest tier modifiers you can afford.

Another important note is that Minion Attack Speed modifier can also be found on Abyss Jewels, but they become very expensive if they also have added flat damage modifiers. You can choose whether to add them based on your needs.

The final boost for this build comes from the unique Elegant Hubris Timeless Jewel, which provides us with three 80% increased minion damage nodes. Two of these nodes can be activated through the unique Impossible Escape Jewel with the Minion Instability variant. We chose not to activate the other node because it would require too many skill points. Nevertheless, all these settings allow this skill's DoT damage to exceed the cap.

How to stack Energy Shield regen?

Next, this build has over 1300 Energy Shield regeneration. How is this achieved?

First, our chest and helmet provide some life regeneration, and the three Large Cluster Jewels provide even more life regeneration. And because of the 35% Increased Effect modifiers, all the small nodes also provide a significant amount of life regeneration.

Another factor is the unique Rational Doctrine Jewel, which provides permanent Consecrated Ground, providing an additional 5% life regeneration.

Finally, when mapping, Cinderswallow Urn we wear also provides an additional 3% life regeneration. All of this life recovery will be converted into energy shield recovery through Zealot's Oath.

Gear

For Arakaali's Fang Occultist build in PoE 3.27, we need to focus on minion attack speed, poison damage bonuses, survivability, and key unique items to ensure continuous spider summoning. Balancing defensive and utility gems is also crucial for both mapping and boss fights. Here is our gear setup for your reference:

• Weapon: Arakaali's Fang Fiend Dagger
• Helmet: The Dark Monarch
• Amulet: Impresence
• Shield: The Square
• Boots: Paladin Boots
• Gloves: Paladin Gloves
• Body Armour: Sacred Chainmail
• Belt: Darkness Enthroned
• Rings: Miracle Twirl & Rage Spiral
• Flasks: Quicksilver, Quartz, Granite Flask, Cinderswallow Urn & The Writhing Jar

Passive Tree

For Passive Tree setup, our focus is on minion damage, attack speed, life/energy shield, and curses. We recommend using a large number of Cluster Jewels with Increased Effect and Minion Attack Speed modifiers for significant boosts, along with the key unique jewels Rational Doctrine and Amanamu's Gaze, and further customization and enhancement using Tattoos and Runegrafts.

Additionally, prioritize nodes near Witch/Occultist area and move towards the upper right, acquiring minion clusters, while also investing in life/energy shield to improve survivability and increasing curse effectiveness to enhance the power of Profane Bloom explosions.

Finally, the total cost for all upgrades in this build was approximately 130 Divine Orbs, with Timeless Jewel being the most expensive investment, but absolutely worth it! However, everyone's spending will certainly vary; you can remove or replace equipment as needed, entirely depending on your situation. Have fun!

Path of Exile 3.27 has been out for over a month, and major content updates have ceased. Most players have likely switched to PoE 2, and those still playing PoE 1 are likely casual players.

Therefore, Cold DoT Elementalist build recommended today is perfect for casual players. It requires minimal investment, involves few actions, and is incredibly versatile.

Cold DoT Elementalist Advantages And Disadvantages

Cold DoT Elementalist is a very versatile build, with no weaknesses in farming or boss battles. This build primarily relies on DoT damage, so even if the weapon's damage is low, the impact is minimal.

This build can apply slowing and other negative effects to monsters, and although its health is relatively low, you can compensate by stacking energy shields, making it actually quite tanky. Additionally, this build can generate pulses periodically, enabling automatic farming.

However, as a DoT build, DoT damage has a cap, so even if you invest heavily in PoE Currency to acquire top-tier gear, your burst damage won't surpass that of burst builds. When facing bosses, you need to cast spells to stack DoTs, and fights against bosses with high Cold resistance can be lengthy.

Core Gameplay

This build's damage doesn't come from any single skill, but rather from multiple layers of Cold Damage over Time and large-area Chill crowd control. You simply need to keep moving, and mobs will die around you.

Therefore, your damage primarily comes from these skills:

• Creeping Frost
• Vortex
• Vaal Cold Snap

Once the ice field is established, players hardly need to cast spells frequently; simply keep moving, and monsters will be slowed, frozen, and naturally fall under the CTD damage. The key to achieving this is Vaal Cold Snap, which inflicts Cold DoTs and Chills on enemies within a certain area.

Building upon this, since enemies are almost constantly chilled or severely slowed, and DoT skills can be applied from a distance, you rarely need to engage in close-range combat. This means that even if your armor and elemental resistances aren't at their maximum, you can achieve high safety through control, distance, and timing.

However, when facing elite monsters or bosses, relying solely on Vaal Cold Snap is insufficient. You need to actively apply curses like Frostbite and sequentially apply Vortex, Creeping Frost, and Cold Snap to keep the target constantly in multiple frost zones. You need to amplify existing damage over time, not change your damage output.

Cold DoT Elementalist Gear

This build is playable regardless of your currency investment, and approximately 20 POE Divine Orbs are needed to make it run smoothly.

This build doesn't rely on specific gear, so you need to understand which affixes you need. Once you understand your damage and defense sources, you can then apply affixes to your gear yourself.

Weapons

• Recommended: Tulborn (Foulborn Version with +4 Cold Spell Skills)

For weapons, focus on the affixes Cold Damage over Time Multiplier and +Cold Skill Gems. The weapon type itself is irrelevant; as long as it contains these affixes, it's usable for a long time until you find something better.

Armor

• Recommended: Daresso's Courage, Rime Gaze

You don't need to deliberately stack resistances. What you need is health or energy shields to provide stable support for sustained combat and map movement. If your support gems require you to maintain low health, then stack more energy shields.

Resistances, status ailment immunity, and movement speed take priority over armor or evasion stats. Since enemies are often in a chilled state, you rarely suffer concentrated melee attacks, so gear should prioritize increasing survivability rather than tanking enemy damage.

Jewelry

• Recommended: Ashes of the Stars, The Hungry Loop, Triumvirate Authority.

For necklaces, rings, and belts, their primary function is to supplement resistances, provide attribute requirements, and further enhance Cold DoTs. If they can further increase DoT damage or skill level, it will significantly enhance overall output, but these are not necessary conditions for building a full set.

Cold DoT Elementalist Skills

• Chest Armor: Creeping Frost, Cruelty, Hypothermia, Swift Affliction, Elemental Focus, Controlled Destruction
• Helmet: Vortex, Cruelty, Controlled Destruction, Bonechill
• Gloves: Arctic Armour, Tempest Shield, Summon Stone Golem of Hordes, Malevolence
• Boots: Summon Lightning Golem, Summon Flame Golem, Summon Stone Golem, Summon Chaos Golem
• Ring 1: Animate Guardian, Elemental Weakness
• Ring 2: Vaal Cold Snap
• Main Hand Weapon: Shield Charge, Vaal Righteous Fire, Frostbite
• Off-Hand Weapon: Vitality, Arrogance, Flesh and Stone

Your DoT output primarily consists of Creeping Frost, Cold Snap, and Vortex. Creeping Frost creates a frozen path, while Cold Snap rapidly generates a Cold DoT area around you. Vortex unleashes a burst of energy, primarily used when enemies approach.

These three skills are sufficient for clearing maps and farming bosses. Other skills are mainly for triggering passive skill buffs, further enhancing your DoT.

Skills like Golem and Animate Guardian aren't direct sources of damage; they provide damage reduction, auras, or additional debuffs, making Frost DoTs last longer and have more consistent coverage. Especially in long boss fights, the indirect benefits of this type of gear are often more significant than simply stacking damage.

Passive Skill Tree Keystones

• Pain Attunement: Increases spell damage at low life.
• Hex Master: Reduces Curses damage, but grants unlimited damage over time.
• Eternal Youth: Reduces life regeneration efficiency and leech, allowing life to regenerate like an Eternal Youth.
• Zealot's Oath: Life regeneration effect can be applied to ES.

Masteries

• Cold Mastery (2)
• Elemental Mastery (1)
• Energy Shield Mastery (1)
• Damage Over Time Mastery (1)
• Reservation Mastery (1)
• Minion Offence Mastery (1)

Cold DoT Elementalist is very easy to play and can satisfy almost all endgame content. The process of clearing out mobs is also very smooth. You can try to optimize this build yourself.