When starting a new patch or league in Path of Exile 2, choosing the right build is crucial if you want to progress quickly. Generally, powerful builds are recommended, but sometimes novelty and new changes must also be considered.

Taking the upcoming Fate of the Vaal league, launching on December 12th, as an example, you can play the new Druid class, so builds related to it are not to be missed. Furthermore, various changes to combat mechanics mean that old builds may gain new vitality.

Based on the above, we will recommend three builds worth crafting and playing first in the new patch.

The Wyvern Form-Focused Build

If you're keeping up with the latest PoE 2 news, you'll know from livestreams and announcements that Druid can transform into three forms: wolf, bear, and wyvern, by using new weapon Animal Talismans.

The wyvern is the last and most unique form announced. Transforming into a flying dragon and spewing flames with Flame Breath skill will undoubtedly feel incredibly cool.

While this is only one type of attack in wyvern form, it's the most important because its actual attack speed is very fast, with a base attack speed of up to 800%, and you can continuously channel it for 4 seconds to deal 750% fire damage.

If you want to extend the channeling time of Flame Breath, you can do so by consuming six Rage per second. Additionally, when using this skill, for every energy charge consumed, you gain a 50% lightning damage bonus and a 50% reduction in Rage consumption speed.

This means that only three Rage per second are needed to achieve all the effects mentioned above, and since the base Rage limit is 30 points, this means you can gain an additional 10 seconds of channeling time with the help of energy charges.

According to the developers' recommended playstyle, choose the wyvern form and its fire-breathing skills, along with Ascendancy class Shaman, and then buy PoE 2 currency to further enhance the appropriate gear, and you will become an invincible Druid.

The Modified Pathfinder

Pathfinder is one of Ascendancy classes of the base class Ranger, specializing in damaging enemies through mechanisms such as poisons and flask throwing.

If you find the overall movement speed of Druid Wyvern fire-breathing build too slow, then a Pathfinder-based build is worth trying: this Ascendancy class can reduce the movement speed penalty by 50% by unlocking specific nodes.

In addition, patch 0.4.0 also brought several Ascendancy passive skill options to Pathfinder, allowing you to leverage the strengths of other classes, including:

• Path of the Warrior: Allows you to allocate initial Warrior passive skill points.
• Path of the Sorceress: Allows you to allocate initial Sorceress passive skill points.

Each option rewards you with 4 passive skill points. Based on this, if you want to make your Pathfinder builds more elemental, you can choose Sorceress passive skills; if you value attack power more, you can start with Warrior.

In fact, although the nodes and passive skills between different Ascendancy classes are not interchangeable, theoretically, all active skills are universal across all classes due to the skill gem mechanism.

Therefore, after determining your passive skill style, you can incorporate Druid's wyvern fire skill, Flame Breath, into your Pathfinder builds, converting your damage type from physical damage to fire damage.

More importantly, Pathfinder also received some additional bonuses through Patch 0.4.0, with damage, global defenses, and cost efficiency all increased by 5%.

To this end, you can first allocate some energy shield talent nodes, and then a bunch of attribute nodes to gain a large amount of energy shield.

At this point, you will find that you can combine reduced movement speed penalties and energy shields to craft fast and sturdy Pathfinder builds. This is theoretically possible, but it is difficult in practice and requires time to explore.

Titan Bear Build

After combining Pathfinder and Druid wyvern, another cross-class build type worth trying is Titan bear.

Titan is Warrior's Ascendancy class, specializing in overwhelming physical power. As one of Druid's transformation forms, the bear has a certain tank style, capable of knocking down and stunning enemies, similar to Titan.

In the changes brought by Patch The Last of Druids, Titan gained a new Ascendancy talent node, Mountain Splitter. It allows every third slam skill you cast that doesn't create a fissure to generate an additional aftershock on each side of the initial area.

Correspondingly, the previous Surprising Strength node has been removed, and Crushing Impacts now deals 25% increased damage to heavily stunned enemies.

The skills available to Druid's bear form, such as Maul, Furious Slam, and more, mostly emphasize heavy hits and effects like Warcries, which synergize well with Titan skills.

For example, you can continuously slam the ground, generating a series of aftershocks, while simultaneously gaining 50% of the small passive node effects through Titan's class characteristics, as well as other AoE attack nodes.

Overall, the three builds introduced here are essentially based on the new Druid class. Thanks to skill gems, the addition of this new class to Path of Exile 2 also brings many build crafting possibilities to other classes.

Whether you are interested in these three builds or want to try more uses of Druid form after the new league officially starts, it's all possible. We hope your exploration goes smoothly and you have fun!

The official requirements and rewards for ARC Raiders Expedition have been released. However, to gain the extra 5 skill points, you need items worth 5 million coins in your stash (including your own coins).

While participation in Expedition isn't mandatory for all players, it provides extra stash space and skill points, which players who want to experience it long-term definitely won't want to miss. The remaining challenge is accumulating enough coins before the window closes.

Expedition Requirements And Rewards

Expedition's start date has been slightly delayed; it begins on December 17th and closes on December 22nd. Only players level 20 and above can participate. Players who meet the level requirement can submit items during this period to fulfill the conditions and reset their level, inventory, blueprints, etc.

Players who successfully reset their progress will receive the following rewards:

• The Patchwork Raider outfit
• Scrappy Janitor Cap
• Expeditions Indicator icon
• Skill points (depending on Stash value)
• +12 Stash space

To maximize skill point rewards, you need to optimize your inventory, ensuring each slot contains high-value items, while low-value basic materials and common shields should be sold or dismantled.

PVE Farming Strategy

• Location: Buried City

If you don't want to engage in PvP, Buried City is the best map for you, as it's safe and yields between 70,000 and 100,000 ARC Raiders coins per run, and you only need to quickly loot a few resource-rich and safe indoor locations, then immediately evacuate via a nearby hatch or extraction point.

Loot Spots

Red Tower

Red Tower is located in the south of the map. You can enter from the top or bottom to check drawers and weapon cases, which may contain security breaches.

Santa Maria Houses

Santa Maria Houses are a few houses north of Red Tower. You can first clear the drawers and security breaches in the neighbor's attic, then enter Santa Maria Houses attic to loot drawers and find a third security breach. You can then descend from the attic to the rooms. There are many valuables on the tables, sofas, and drawers, while weapon cases are usually found in the yard.

Building Underneath The Bridge

You can enter rooms with breachable doors, which often contain valuables, blueprints, and weapons. You can also use Buried City Residential Master Key to open the door to a hidden building ,and the room contains weapons, valuables, grenades, blueprints, etc.

Key Tips

This route prioritizes efficiency. You can bring some adrenaline to speed up map traversal. Both solo and dual teams can find good loot at these locations.

You can plan your search route, but there's no need to stick to a fixed one. It's best to flexibly visit these hot loot spots based on your spawn point and the current battle situation. Also, ammo boxes may contain valuable items, so don't forget to search them. After each run, to maximize your profits, sell all your loot and don't hoard it.

PVP Farming Strategy

• Location: Stella Montis

Stella Montis has a high PVP density. How much loot you collect depends on your strategy and PVP ability, so the rewards fluctuate greatly. Generally, each run yields over 50,000 to 120,000 coins.

For skills, you can bring Broad Shoulders to increase carrying capacity and Loaded Arms to reduce weapon weight, allowing you to carry more loot.

Stella Montis's main resource points are distributed in the four corners of the map:

• Medical Research area on the west side has valuable loot throughout.
• Assembly Workshops on the north side have two room groups; clearing them out yields highly valuable items.
• In the southernmost Seed Vault, each seed is worth 100 coins; you can usually loot 60-70, worth approximately 6000-7000 coins.
• Security Room near the lobby is also rich in resources, but PvP often breaks out there.

Zero-risk Approach

You can enter using free loadout, then prioritize looting Seed Vault or nearby resource points, fill your inventory, and leave. Each run yields a stable 50,000 to 80,000 coins; even if you die, you only lose seeds, with virtually no risk.

High-risk, High-reward Approach

You can also enter with high-level gear and a big looting bag, looting high-level resource points and participating in PvP to plunder other players' equipment. Even a well-equipped level 5 Stitcher can earn you 10,000 to 18,000 coins.

This method can easily yield over 100,000 coins, but the risk of participating in PvP is extremely high because Stella Montis battleground is chaotic and requires excellent adaptability. You can sell all your items after evacuating and then re-enter, repeating this cycle to quickly accumulate wealth and PvP experience.

Matriarch/Queen Events

The last method is rather underhanded and unethical. If you're willing to be a rat, this method can also earn a lot of coins.

In raids containing Matriarchs and Queen events, all players enter with their best gear, so defeating them yields extremely high rewards. If you can successfully kill several teams each round, you can earn 200,000 to 300,000 ARC Raiders coins. While other player teams attack the boss, your team focuses on eliminating the remaining players. Ideally, when the boss is defeated, only one team remains on the map to deal with. Eliminating them allows you and your team to claim all the loot.

However, this requires precise control over the pace of eliminating other player teams. Too fast and you'll have to fight the boss yourself; too slow and other teams will take the loot. This method is highly unethical and will likely result in you being wanted by other players, so you had better not use the method.

You can run Buried City multiple times, and with your previous accumulation, reaching a stash value of 5 million coins before Expedition deadline shouldn't be too difficult.