News Tag: Path Of Exile

Dear PoE 3.28 players, with Mirage League progressing, now is the perfect time to explore powerful builds. Have you ever thought about combining Poison and Flicker Strike? Imagine how fun that would be! Now let's explore how to build this Poison Flicker Strike Assassin build!

This build is a Flicker Strike variant with poison as its core damage mechanic, belonging to a less mainstream playstyle. It's not suitable for Uber Bosses because its damage and survivability don't meet the requirements for that extreme raid.

However, it can smoothly farm Nightmare Maps and easily handle regular bosses like Eater of Worlds and Searing Exarch.

Core Gear

This build's damage rotation relies on the synergy between several pieces of gear. Fortunately, since you are not forced to use unique gear, you can complete this build even if you don't have a lot of PoE currency.

First, we use Arakaali's Fang, which triggers Raise Spiders. These spiders are linked to Withering Touch, Minion Speed, and Greater Multistrike. Therefore, they attack enemies very quickly, stacking Wither layers and significantly increasing the chaos damage enemies take.

Secondly, choose Bino's Kitchen Knife. Its core function is poison proliferation. Whenever you kill a poisoned enemy, other enemies within 3 meters are automatically poisoned. Additionally, Bino's Kitchen Knife provides a small amount of health regeneration.

For the chest armor, use Farrul's Fur, which periodically grants you full frenzy charges and power charges through Aspect of the Cat.

Since this build's attack speed isn't extremely high, Less Duration Support isn't necessary. Other required affixes can also be obtained through rings.

Additionally, We recommend that you choose Snakebite gloves, as they provide hit chance, attack speed, poison chance, and damage over time multiplier based on your current frenzy charges.

For boots, choose Ralakesh's Impatience. Its core mechanic is that even if you don't actually gain any frenzy charges or power charges, you're still considered having the maximum of either. This effect is crucial because it directly triggers Snakebite's poison chance bonus.

At last, we chose Olesya's Delight belt, which converts all your frenzy charges into Affliction charges, providing a significant damage boost.

Furthermore, don't worry about Snakebite's effect being nullified after the frenzy charges are converted, because Ralakesh's Impatience ensures you're always considered having full frenzy charges, perfectly negating the side effects of the actual conversion.

Skill Links and Aura Setup

Our primary offensive skill is Flicker Strike of Power. It links Added Chaos Damage, Unbound Ailments, Greater Multistrike, Fortify, and Void Manipulation.

Since this skill also requires investing in Chance to Poison Implicit attribute, this may be the most expensive part of completing this build. Of course, if you're short on funds, you can also choose to buy cheap PoE currency from IGGM.com. Don't worry about a limited budget; unlock the most powerful endgame gear for your character now!

For movement abilities, we now use Whirling Blades and equip Precision, Plague Bearer, and Desecrate on our gloves. Desecrate's purpose is to summon 20 spiders by creating corpses in conjunction with The Writhing Jar when there are no enemy corpses during the boss fight.

Next, regarding aura configuration, we activated Herald of Agony, Grace, and Flesh and Stone. Flesh and Stone is best linked to Enlighten and maxed out.

For curses, the amulet uses Impresence, which allows Despair curse to be linked to Blasphemy without mana loss, becoming an aura.

As for the amulet annointing, we chose Dismembering to increase critical strike damage and synergize with Perfect Agony talent.

Flasks

For flasks, to increase melee attack speed, we choose Rosethorn Tincture.

In addition, we can also use Jade Flask for dodge bonus and Stibnite Flask for crit chance bonus.

Talent Tree and Jewels

The key talent for Poison Flicker Strike Assassin is Perfect Agony, which makes the damage over time multiplier equal to your critical strike damage bonus, so you need to stack 100% critical strike chance. This goal can be easily achieved using Assassin ascendancy and power charges.

For Timeless Jewels, you can use Lethal Pride to compensate for the lack of strength. Alternatively, you can replace it with The Light of Meaning and address the strength issue by changing rings and jewels, thus achieving higher damage output.

Damage and Survivability

In terms of damage, this build primarily relies on poison combined with Perfect Agony and Wither stacks. The ideal optimized configuration, using Light of Meaning, will result in even higher damage. At 15 Wither stacks, you can achieve around 30 million poison DPS.

Because spiders stack Wither very quickly, damage will rapidly increase in actual combat.

In terms of survivability, you mainly rely on Fortify and Grace for evasion, Flesh and Stone for blinding, and spell suppression from the talent tree.

Additionally, The Pantheon chose Lunaris and Tukohama. Since Flicker Strike is considered stationary during continuous attacks, it reliably benefits from healing.

Overall, this build is fairly tanky, requiring some attention to dodging projectiles, but Lunaris provides some assistance.

This build is relatively inexpensive; the most expensive part is Flicker Strike of Power, especially the imbuement on Chance to Poison, which costs around 50 POE Divine Orbs. Other equipment such as Farrul's Fur, Arakaali's Fang, and Bino's Kitchen Knife are not particularly expensive.

A similar build was played using Occultist in previous leagues, perhaps with even better results. If you're interested, you can also try building this Poison Flicker Strike build with Occultist for a different experience.

That concludes the build strategy for this Poison Flicker Strike Assassin build. Hope these will be helpful to you in PoE 3.28!

Path of Exile 3.28 league is fast approaching its one-month mark, and its performance across all aspects has largely stabilized, barring any future in-game events or patches designed to address specific glaring flaws.

Consequently, it is high time to conduct a provisional assessment of the game's current state, with a particular focus on the ever-shifting meta landscape that has been in flux since 3.24 league.

This review will not only assist players who have yet to dive deep into Mirage league in deciding whether to continue playing, but also provide strategies for those looking to further optimize and empower their characters in the endgame. Let's get started.

The diminishing importance of Energy Shield

Since the introduction of T17 maps in 3.24 league, the prevailing meta, driven by the need to tackle high-difficulty content for lucrative rewards, has compelled the majority of players to adopt an Energy Shield (ES)-centric playstyle.

This trend emerged primarily because T17 maps ramp up difficulty through specific affixes; Energy Shield offered the most flexible and effective means of mitigating the threats posed by these particularly dangerous modifiers.

Subsequently, 3.25 league introduced new tiers of high-end base items, specifically those capable of converting defensive attributes into offensive power.

These items allowed players to stack colossal amounts of Energy Shield, thereby further entrenching and reinforcing the meta dominance of this specific playstyle.

While this approach yielded significant combat advantages in the short term, over the long run, it led to a stagnation of the game's combat dynamics, a phenomenon that explains why the leagues immediately following it felt somewhat lackluster and stagnant.

Fortunately, the fervor surrounding ES Stacking began to subside in 3.27 league. 3.28 Mirage league has further accelerated this trend of de-emphasizing Energy Shield through a comprehensive restructuring of T17 maps.

In addition to reducing the loot bonuses associated with these maps, the developers removed several of the most contentious map affixes, thereby breaking the stranglehold these modifiers had previously exerted on the survivability of various character builds.

Building upon these changes, 3.28 league also implemented a more direct nerf to Energy Shield by reducing the amount of ES gained per point of intelligence, the primary attribute used for scaling Energy Shield.

The changing landscape of dominant classes

Undoubtedly, the seismic shifts in Energy Shield meta are poised to trigger a transformative overhaul of Path of Exile's overall landscape, and the relative rankings of the various character classes are the first to feel the impact.

For the past four leagues, Trickster has consistently held the top spot among Ascendancy classes, largely thanks to its core passive, One Step Ahead.

However, starting in League 3.27, the game subjected this passive to a drastic nerf, completely removing its former offensive bonuses.

Building upon this, the introduction of Bloodline classes now allows players to utilize additional synergies to resist or mitigate action speed reduction effects, a feat that, in the past (without the aid of specific gear), was achievable only by Trickster and Juggernaut.

In light of these changes, the dominant Ascendancy class in the current 3.28 league has shifted to Hierophant. A further contributing factor is that the game's most popular build, Kinetic Fusilade Totems build, also originates from this class.

This archetype is not only viable for both league-start progression and endgame content, but it also offers a seamless transition into Kinetic Blast of Clustering build, a powerhouse strategy from previous leagues.

Furthermore, when the inherent set-and-forget nature of Totem builds is combined with Hierophant's popular Conviction of Power passive, players can effectively blend defensive and block mechanics to achieve significantly greater survivability.

Another standout Ascendancy class in League 3.28 is Necromancer. It, too, boasts a rich and diverse array of viable builds, with Kinetic Blast of Clustering remaining the most popular choice.

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For Necromancer, this specific build allows for full utilization of the attack speed bonuses against corpse clusters, thereby leveraging the class's minion-centric identity to maximum effect.

Changes to melee builds

Since receiving substantial buffs in League 3.25, the strongest melee builds in Path of Exile have been typified by Slam skills, particularly during the initial league-start phase.

However, Mirage league introduced nerfs to this archetype, including targeted adjustments specifically aimed at the core skill, Earthshatter.

Consequently, while Slam builds can still deliver respectable performance during the league-start phase when played as a Slayer or Berserker, the era in which they held an overwhelming advantage over all other melee options has come to a definitive end.

In light of this shift, the melee build currently garnering the most attention is Elemental Hit. Its damage output is derived directly from the skill gem itself, a characteristic that aligns perfectly with the demands of the league-start phase, where immediately acquiring gear with exceptional stats is typically a difficult challenge.

Furthermore, Elemental Hit allows you to fully leverage Slayer's defensive strengths, providing you with enhanced life recovery capabilities.

Chaos Inoculation is no longer in its prime

Previously, aside from Energy Shield, Chaos Inoculation (CI) was a core keystone passive considered a mandatory choice for many players crafting their builds.

However, starting with 3.27 league, the introduction of a series of new gear pieces designed to bolster life stacking began to overshadow CI.

In 3.28 league, CI's standing has declined even further. This shift is primarily due to a moderate reduction in the overall difficulty of endgame content, which has opened the door for a wider variety of diverse builds to thrive.

In other words, sources of lucrative rewards are no longer strictly locked to the select few specific map modifiers; this gives you far more flexibility and options when farming for loot.

Conclusion

The introduction of new mechanics and gear starting in 3.27 league, combined with the further optimizations introduced in 3.28 league, have collectively shaped the current Path of Exile meta-game into one that prioritizes both stability and diversity.

So, whether you are a newcomer to the game or a veteran player weighing whether to dive back in, now is the absolute best time to experience Path of Exile! Have fun!

Once the new Path of Exile league begins, your primary task is to immediately start leveling up your character, and one of the most efficient ways to do this is to clear more Atlas maps, the main source of loot.

More importantly, you need to explore the map to gain Atlas passive skill points and allocate them to Atlas tree to gain more rewards or combat assistance during exploration.

Generally, at the beginning of the league, you'll need to complete approximately 126 Atlas points, requiring completion of everything except the main invites and Nightmare maps.

Due to changes in several fundamental mechanics in Mirage league, you'll need to adjust your strategy to improve your map progression efficiency for faster point gain or other goals - we'll explain.

Changes in 3.28 league

Almost every new PoE league has its own unique mechanics, but generally, it's best to skip most or even all the seasonal mechanics at the start of the season, as they are meaningless without prior investment.

To experience the full league mechanics, your character needs decent farming ability, and before that, you'll need to invest sufficient resources to improve them, such as atlas points based on map clearing.

What's unique about Mirage League is its changes to the entire atlas map system. Now, instead of detailed maps, they're all collectively called Tier maps, which you can choose as needed.

Interestingly, this is largely consistent with how maps work in PoE 2. That is, once you have a Tier 1 map, you can challenge any Tier 1 map, and so on. This mechanism is much simpler than before, thus accelerating progress.

Priority nodes to unlock

Considering the changes to the entire atlas map set, after launching the map in 3.28 league, you should prioritize unlocking the nodes Shaping the Skies and Shaping the Mountains.

Previously, you wouldn't rush to upgrade these nodes initially because you wanted more map sustain. However, due to the map changes, leveling up as quickly as possible becomes crucial.

Shrine nodes are also very useful in the early game, providing a lot of free energy. Furthermore, you'll gain double Shrine effect when you select more Shrine nodes!

Alternatively, depending on your build speed, you can select the last node to extend the duration of shrines. If your map is short due to build characteristics, you can immediately select these Shrine nodes to gain a Shrine buff and an additional random Shrine.

For example, each time you gain Acceleration Shrine, you can instantly traverse the entire map, saving a significant amount of time while dealing massive damage.

In short, in the early stages of the league when you're relatively weak, Shrines can provide you with a large amount of free damage and powerful gameplay capabilities.

Later, you can choose an upward unlocking path, first selecting some quantity nodes, which are consistently strong, and then selecting three Shrine nodes to ensure a second Shrine on each map. Alternatively, you can select nodes that increase map drop rates.

If you're worried about map sustainability, you can unlock nodes that help you sustain better. Or, if you feel you easily have excess sustainability, you can rush to upgrade nodes to increase power and the overall number of points in the quantity wheel.

Map farming tips

First, we recommend only challenging a new map level when it's two levels lower than your highest completed level. This is because defeating bosses has a chance to drop maps two levels or higher.

For example, when you defeat a level 3 map boss, it has a chance to drop a level 5 map, but only if you've already completed a level 5 map. Otherwise, assuming your highest completed level is 5, challenging a level 4 boss won't result in a level 6 map drop.

However, generally speaking, unless you're playing an extremely powerful character, such as using builds like Slam, you should complete all white maps, then yellow maps, and finally red maps in that order.

The reason is simple: you'll need to complete all maps anyway. So, when your character is at its weakest, it's best to complete all white maps first, rather than rushing.

Of course, if your character can easily handle red maps, then challenging them as quickly as possible is also a good option, especially if you're allowed to use level 16 maps on any map without allocating Watchstones.

Depending on your character builds, essences can be a good choice for early map exploration, applicable to virtually any attack-oriented build. In fact, essences can be used to obtain some decent early-game low-tier weapons.

Once you've mastered the above, you can start farming. All you need to do is kill all the monsters along the way, then move on to the next map.

It's worth noting that each monster now drops one Voidstone, and killing a regular Shaper and another regular Elder will grant you a second. The three Memory bosses will drop a third Voidstone, and the fourth is expected to still come from Maven.

They all provide a global drop multiplier, which is very powerful. Therefore, you should complete all these tasks before you actually start upgrading maps and using map upgrades to obtain a large amount of extra free upgrades.

Map trading changes

Kirac's shop in the game will sell more types of map-related items in 3.28 League, and you can refresh the shop using gold. In addition, more maps will be available for trading with gold, so the value of gold may increase.

The above information and additional tips are what you need to know to progress faster on Atlas map in Path of Exile 3.28 league. Hopefully, this will help you improve your character and farm loot!

The official Path of Exile team previously announced the release date for Patch 3.28, and in this announcement, they officially confirmed the release date as March 6th (Friday), moving away from the previously ambiguous wording of early March. While March 13th could also be considered early March, the official choice indicates their confidence in achieving this date without delay.

Let's see what impact this date will have. Additionally, the official team released an image, which likely hints at gameplay elements in the next league.

PoE 3.28 Release Timeline

The exact time for PoE Patch 3.28 is March 6th, 11:00 AM Pacific Standard Time. You can check the specific time according to your time zone. Below are the release times for some common time zones:

• PST (UTC−8): 2026/3/6, 11:00
• EST (UTC−5): 2026/3/6, 14:00
• CST (UTC−6): 2026/3/6, 13:00
• GMT (UTC+0): 2026/3/6, 19:00
• CET (UTC+1): 2026/3/6, 20:00
• AEDT (UTC+11): 2026/3/7, 06:00

PoE All details and content for March 28th will be revealed during the livestream on February 26th (11:00 AM PST). Traditionally, about a week before the livestream, the official team will begin releasing small teasers on social media, which players will soon see.

The current Keeper Challenge League will end on March 2nd at 1:00 PM. This leaves approximately four days for players to prepare for the new league and complete the challenges. Completing 40 challenges will reward players with a cosmetic armor set, which can also be used in Path of Exile 2.

In addition, the ongoing Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 event will also end next week. Compared to the first event, it's quite short, but it must make way for the new league.

PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0 Release Date Predictions

Based on the release date of this Path of Exile 1 update, we can reasonably predict the release date of the next Path of Exile 2 update.

Typically, to avoid player fragmentation, major updates for the two games are released at different times. If PoE 2 Patch 0.5 is released in early April, then Path of Exile 3.28 expansion will only have about a month of exclusivity, which is clearly too short.

Therefore, a more reasonable speculation is that this update might be delayed until late April. This would allow at least a month and a half for the new Path of Exile 1 expansion, ensuring the healthy operation of both games' league cycles.

Major Gameplay Speculations for PoE 3.28

The image shown as background in the official announcement has naturally attracted player attention. The image appears to depict the entrance to the game's endgame Atlas, possibly a cave destroyed by Commander Kirac.

Based on this, players speculate that the 3.28 expansion might significantly overhaul or reset the core Atlas system. Since highly praised content and mechanics from Path of Exile 1, such as Breachlords Chayula, may be introduced or influence Path of Exile 2 in the future, every major update to Path of Exile 1 is worth close attention from Path of Exile 2 players.

Delve 2.0?

Another speculation is that this is an entrance to a mining camp, which could be a rework of Delve gameplay. Discussions about Delve gameplay have never ceased, with some players even predicting its appearance in PoE 2, as the producer has stated he quite likes it.

Furthermore, chronologically, Breach gameplay was created in Patch 2.5, while Delve was released in Patch 3.4 - both are quite old, having been available for a considerable time.

Breach gameplay was just reworked in PoE 3.27, so reworking Delve in the same order makes perfect sense. Players love this mechanism that brings lots of PoE currency, and it's highly likely this mechanism will be ported to Path of Exile 2, allowing the developers to familiarize themselves with it beforehand.

Optimization Directions

While Delve is an excellent mechanic, it's not without flaws. The player community has offered numerous suggestions for optimizing Delve:

Rewards And Difficulty Optimization

The number of items rewarded in Delve and Azurite rewards should increase better with depth, and node types should increase with depth, favoring rarer types.

Delve difficulty should increase faster to shorten the time required to reach high-reward zones. After the player's health cap is reached, the difficulty can be further increased through other mechanics such as Toughness, but core mechanics like Leech should be avoided.

Gameplay Expansion

The current Delve environment limits effective Delve builds. Balance adjustments are needed around defensive and offensive mechanics to encourage more diverse playstyles.

Players want a rework of monster mechanics like Flicker Spiders that ignore Evasion, allowing evasion-reliant characters to be effective at higher depths. Ideally, overly powerful monster affixes like Elemental Penetration should be removed or adjusted.

Item Drops

Delve's gameplay is somewhat outdated, with many new and unique items offering more appeal than their rewards. Besides adjusting the unique effects of some classic items, the drop list should be updated. For example, allowing high-end items like Tier 17 maps to drop in the core should be implemented, and the gold drop rate should be increased to synergize with town content like Settlers.

Delve's talents in Atlas shouldn't just increase Sulphite acquisition, and they should introduce more diverse bonuses and gameplay changes. Additionally, neglected Armor Nodes and trivial reward nodes could be eliminated to make Delve more compact and efficient.

That's a general overview of Patch 3.28's release date, and you'll be able to play it in less than a month. You can play something else while waiting for its release, or hurry up and experience Legacy of Phrecia 2.0.

Path of Exile players' anticipation and thirst for new content is never-ending. After all, no matter how fun the current league is, you'll eventually get tired of it!

Therefore, the developers always manage to release a preview of a new league before you get bored. Even if this preview reveals almost nothing of substance, you'll still be excited.

Nearly three months after Keepers of the Flame league launched, the development team released an announcement on January 12th stating that 3.28 would launch sometime in early March.

While PoE hasn't released any new content about 3.28 league since then, we can predict the changes it might make based on the game's current performance. Here's a breakdown.

Predicted release date

Except for the unusually long interval between 3.25 and 3.26 leagues due to the development of Path of Exile 2, PoE 1 league update cycle has generally been around four months.

Based on this, the official announcement that 3.28 league will launch in March 2026 is entirely reasonable. Furthermore, the game seems to habitually release on Fridays, so March 6th and 13th are the only suitable dates.

About eight days before that, the development team will hold a live stream to reveal the official content, followed immediately by a detailed update description of 3.28 League, listing all the new content and changes.

Of course, as you know, games often leak a small portion of content before the official live stream through interviews or image previews to pique your curiosity. Therefore, Path of Exile community is expected to be very active at the end of February.

Current game status

Legacy of Phrecia event, exclusive to Path of Exile 1, is currently underway and playable until February 19th. It offers both challenge and fun through a brand-new Ascendancy class and more dangerous enemies.

More importantly, 3.27 league hasn't ended even after this event, meaning you can leverage the high difficulty of Legacy of Phrecia to earn more PoE currency through combat, enhancing your remaining Keepers of the Flame experience.

Will 3.27 league-limited mechanics carry over to 3.28?

As you know, the core gameplay of Path of Exile is exceptionally large and complex because almost every league introduces a new mechanic, which, if popular and effective, is carried over to the core gameplay.

The mercenary gameplay, popular in 3.26, wasn't carried over due to its overwhelming power, and Breach-related mechanics introduced in 3.27 league are essentially a reset of the old Breach, so we speculate that its chances of being retained are not high.

Predictions of new content

As the saying goes, nothing stays secret forever. Besides intentional leaks from the development team, sometimes routine actions can also lead to spoilers.

For example, not long ago, players discovered that Path of Exile's development studio was recruiting voice actors for a character called Saresh, the Weeping Black. However, this character is already dead in the backstory.

Therefore, we speculate that patch 3.28 might introduce a new story or gameplay based on this character, and Saresh himself might be resurrected and return as a new boss, since he was originally a villain.

As a necromancer, Saresh was also known as Surgeon of the Dead. He was a former member of Order of the Djinn, instigated the war against Maraketh, and was ultimately killed by Garukhan.

Currently, there isn't much information available about this character in the game, so our predictions are limited to this for now. But as 3.28 livestream and official release date approach, the truth will eventually come out.

How to prepare for 3.28?

The league update means a reset of the economic system, so the currency and gear you earn now cannot be carried over to 3.28 league unless you only plan to play the standard league afterwards.

Fortunately, farming strategies for currency and common gear generally won't change significantly, so as long as you're familiar with the basic mechanics and learn the new ones before 3.28 league is released officially, you should be fine.

Beyond that, you can use the remaining time of 3.27 league to experiment with more build-crafting possibilities - of course, it's best to wait until after Legacy of Phrecia event ends.

To make your builds powerful enough to improve your combat and loot acquisition efficiency, you must adapt them to the league mechanics and the different needs in the early and late stages of the league.

Therefore, while we don't yet know what 3.28 league will look like, the more builds you try and master, the more easily you can switch builds after the new league is released.

Generally, the release of a new class or Ascendancy class will cause a major reshuffle of builds and their rankings in the game, but the likelihood of PoE 1 adding a new class in the near future is low. If you want to try the new class, PoE 2 is a better choice.

One more piece of advice is for new players. Path of Exile is a game with extremely complex mechanics; even understanding the current standard mechanics requires a significant investment of time and effort.

Therefore, if you plan to join the game through 3.28 league, you can actually start immediately after Legacy of Phrecia ends, using the remaining time to study its core mechanics. Otherwise, it might delay your experience with the new league-exclusive content.

The above is our speculation regarding Path of Exile 3.28 release date and new content. We will provide the latest updates after its official release, so stay tuned!

Remember the highly successful Legacy of Phrecia event in POE 3.25? It’s back in the Keepers of the Flame league!

This limited-time event runs from January 29th to February 19th, allowing you to experience the new Ascendancy classes and win massive rewards. But does this mean that the classes and gameplay that were very strong in the last event are still viable? Not really, because the developers have made some improvements to these classes. Here, we’ll discuss the biggest winners and losers in Legacy of Phrecia 2.0.

Nerfs

Let’s take a look at which classes the developers have nerfed.

Ancestral Commander

The developers have nerfed two of Ancestral Commander’s abilities: Ancestral Endurance and Ancestral Defiance, inevitably weakening Ancestral Commander itself.

Specifically, the maximum Endurance charge for Ancestral Endurance will be reduced to 2; the life regeneration effect of Ancestral Defiance (a built-in mini-version of Defiance of Destiny) has also been reduced from 15% to 10%. It’s clear from these figures that Ancestral Commander’s overall survivability has decreased. Nevertheless, it remains a fairly powerful Defensive Ascendency.

In addition, Ancestral Commander has undergone two other significant changes:

Firstly, the effect of its Call of the Ancestors node is completely reversed. In Legacy of Phrecia, this talent node significantly increases Warcry speed and reduces cooldown recovery speed.

With this change, it will no longer be applicable to automatic consumption, thus becoming a passive ability. After the upgrade, Warcry will reach level 20, and players will enjoy a buff during manual casting. Combined with the skill’s inherent speed bonus, the casting time of Warcry will be reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.24 seconds.

Another key change is that the number of additional targets for Ancestral Reach has increased from 1 to 2. Additionally, this skill has swapped positions with Ancestral Echo. This change requires players to fully utilize Ancestral Echo before maximizing the effectiveness of Ancestral Reach. To activate Ancestral Echo, players need to create distance. This requires considerable skill and is impossible for most players to execute.

Scavenger

Secondly, Scavenger’s overall capabilities have also been somewhat reduced due to the nerf to commonly used equipment.

As Scavenger’s most frequently used equipment, its nerf was expected. In this event, the developers reduced physical damage taken as elemental by 10%, significantly weakening its defensive capabilities. Although significantly nerfed, this remains an undeniable advantage of Cloak of Flame.

The developers also considered players’ need for high physical damage conversion, so they introduced Bound By Destiny in this event. This new gear can fully meet players’ needs.

Do players have to spend a certain amount of Path Of Exile currency to unlock this new gear to achieve a high conversion rate?

In reality, most players’ pursuit of a high physical damage conversion rate can be achieved by using Cloak of Flame in combination with Eldritch Implicit Helmet, but this might have some impact on maximum physical damage output.

Of course, the nerf to the second most popular talent, Void Battery, was also expected. In the POE 3.27 event, the developers reduced the spell damage provided by each stack of Power Charge from 25% to 15%, a significant weakening for Power Charge Stacking builds.

Blind Prophet

In the final nerf of this event, the developers also briefly explained that the weapon critical strike chance of Blind Prophet has been reduced by 3%. This adjustment doesn’t significantly impact the gameplay of this class. Players simply need to reduce other investments and focus on investing in POE currency to increase critical strike chance to reach the critical strike cap.

Buffs

Now that we’ve covered the nerfs, let’s look at the buffs.

Bog Shaman

In Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 buff list, Bog Shaman undoubtedly tops the list. Its changes are as follows:

First, unlike before, minor talent nodes no longer provide a Curse effect; instead, they increase maximum health at each node. The higher the character’s survivability, the greater the chance of winning, which is undoubtedly a huge buff.

Second, Fell Fen can benefit from Chaos damage provided by minor nodes in this event.

Besides the two minor changes above, Bog Shaman’s two most important buffs are as follows:

First is the buff to Vile Imprecations. Compared to the previous version, players can deal 10% more damage to enemies, while the damage players receive from enemies is reduced accordingly. In this event, the developers replaced the previous reduction in curse aura reservation efficiency with an additional maximum curse stack, a much-anticipated adjustment.

Furthermore, Toad Pact has received significant improvements in Projectile speed, Area of ​​Effect, and skill duration. However, it’s important to note that this enhancement comes with a downside – all elemental resistances are reduced by 40%.

Aristocrat

Next is Aristocrat’s upgrade. This event enhances its attribute stacking, increasing the corresponding attribute bonus from 30% to 40%, and also allowing for damage bonuses based on the lowest attribute value. This means players can effectively stack attributes to maximize damage.

Behemoth

The biggest winner of this Ascendancy class enhancement is likely Behemoth. While its Warcry and Aura skills are disabled, it still retains the very powerful Rampage skill. Under Aura restriction, players can only use non-Aura spells, meaning they can use Blood Rage or other spells.

Additionally, Mental Conditioning node has been significantly enhanced, granting 8 mana for every 4 points of Strength, double the amount from the previous event. This node also provides Power of Purpose, converting 80% of mana into twice the armor, greatly boosting Behemoth’s defensive capabilities.

Daughter of Oshabi

Finally, Daughter of Oshabi has also received some enhancements. The most significant change is the addition of Precursor’s Release bonus when equipment is not socketed with gems, and it can be combined with the enhanced Oath of the Magi for even greater benefits.

There are also some minor changes, such as separating Spellslinger node from other less related nodes, so players using Spellslinger builds no longer need to consume two additional Ascendancy points.

Based on the information released so far, the developers have made quite a few changes, both big and small, to Ascendancy class. This event is now live, and players can enter the game to experience it firsthand. Perhaps they can create new gameplay and spark new ideas during this event.

Path of Exile 3.27 was released on November 19th at 5 PM. This patch primarily focuses on improving quality of life and also fixes some abnormal boss behavior.

This patch was released relatively late, meaning it was quickly, or even already, implemented in the game. Let's take a look at the key changes it brings.

Breach Fortress Quality Of Life

In Breach Hive Fortress encounters, there is now an ability that instantly destroys all surrounding walls. This ability is available at the start of the encounter.

These walls were originally designed for players with less gear, serving to slow down monsters and provide a buffer. However, many players (especially late-game players) found these walls annoying because they slowed down the game's pace. Therefore, this is a significant improvement, allowing players to adjust the pace of encounters according to their own strength.

Stronger players can now choose to destroy walls, allowing monsters to rush towards them more quickly, thus speeding up map progression. Players whose builds are not yet fully complete can still choose to retain the walls, making the fight safer and more controllable, but it will take longer.

Sirus Adjustments

In Patch 3.27, Feared Maven Invitation was dropped by Sirus and Incarnation of Dread, but Sirus performed poorly in The Feared fight.

In Patch 3.27.0d, Sirus will now use a wider range of abilities than in regular combat, which may make the fight more dangerous. However, he no longer has the same health threshold as in the regular Sirus fight and can be one-shotted.

For players who can instantly kill Sirus in The Feared, this change may make the fight easier, but for players who cannot finish it quickly, the fight may become more difficult.

However, players who can usually challenge The Feared have already achieved Ailment immunity and Corrupting Blood immunity, so even with more abilities, Sirus's threat is relatively limited.

Currency QoL Improvements

In version 3.27.0, holding down the Alt key while using Orb of Alteration automatically activated Orb of Augmentation function. This has now been extended to Orb of Alchemy and Orb of Chance. Holding down Alt while using Orb of Alchemy or Orb of Chance will automatically consume Orb of Scouring.

This change undoubtedly provides a smoother crafting experience, eliminating the need for players to manually switch PoE currency. For Orb of Chance and Orb of Alchemy (especially when used on the map), this is almost a complete buff, as players typically don't care about the specific numerical range of mods, only whether the mod is feasible.

However, the Alt key is also a shortcut for viewing item mod details. When using Orb of Alteration, if you want to check whether the recently rolled mod is Tier 1 or Tier 2, or whether it's a Perfect Roll, holding down the Alt key will interrupt the crafting process, causing inconvenience.

Ideally, there should be an option to rebind this crafting shortcut, allowing players to enjoy the convenience of new features without interfering with viewing modifier information.

Sales History Upgrade

On the official trading website, players can clearly see detailed information about sold items and modifiers. However, currently, the in-game sales history only displays item names, not detailed information.

This patch makes some minor improvements to the in-game version, but these improvements don't bring substantial experience enhancements, as the in-game version is still far less user-friendly than the website version.

Additionally, some issues with the in-game Market Browser have been fixed, such as some items requiring manual number input instead of dropdown options.

Currently, most players only use the in-game Market Browser for very basic transactions; for any complex searches, players still prefer to use external trading websites.

Bug Fixes

The Feared Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Sirus would remain stationary and not be counted as part of map completion in Valdo's Maps with "The Feared" affix.
• Fixed a bug where Portals were unusable during the fight against The Feared in Valdo's Maps.
• Fixed a bug where Breach Tul and Esh fights could not be completed.
• Fixed an issue where the chilled ground in Incarnation of Dread would sometimes spawn in the wrong location during the encounter in The Feared on Valdo's Maps.

This fix made these maps more dangerous because Sirus now attacks normally. His Dive Bomb skill deals significant damage, making encounters in The Feared more difficult.

Other Bug Fixes And Balance Adjustments

• In Ruthless Mode, fixed a bug where the uber Incarnation Boss did not drop loot.
• Ice Nova slam and Ice Comets in Incarnation of Neglect dealt more damage than expected and have now been nerfed.

Controller-Related Fixes

• Added a Leave Hideout option to the pause menu for controller players in other players' hideouts.
• Fixed a bug where controller players couldn't switch scouting report affinity on the currency stash page.
• Fixed a bug where controller players couldn't use Corruption Altar on Gem items in Vaal Ruins area of the story.
• Added the same currency switching functionality to controllers as to keyboard players; players can switch by pressing Y or the triangle key.

PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0 will be released in about three weeks, so the official team may not have much time to thoroughly fix PoE 3.27. Therefore, this patch mainly focuses on quality-of-life updates and doesn't address the fixes players care about, but it's still a very good update.

As you know, Path of Exile series is known for its complex and extensive game system, which is reflected in every aspect, including the currency system: there are multiple currency types, each with a unique function.

Therefore, once any new league starts, your immediate priority is to quickly accumulate enough currency to smoothly experience the new league's exclusive content. Of course, the simpler the method for farming currency, the better.

Based on this, this guide will use the current 3.27 league as a foundation to show you how to obtain a large amount of currency in Path of Exile by farming strongboxes.

Strategy Overview

As a core gameplay element of Path of Exile series, map running is actually a general term, as running different maps utilizes various buffs to bring different benefits, allowing you to selectively farm according to your needs.

The method we introduce this time focuses on acquiring currency, so you can utilize maps like T17 boss rushing or T16 Kalguuran farming, combining numerous map affixes, and stacking class skills on the passive talent tree to obtain better strongboxes.

This allows you to maximize your final currency and other loot gains beyond regular farming, maximizing rewards within a limited number of farming attempts.

What Are Strongboxes?

As a comprehensive form of loot, strongbox farming has become a well-established farming strategy, especially when combined with Atlas passive tree.

This approach allows you to maximize currency, scarabs, and other gains by investing in strongboxes nodes on Atlas skill tree and farming strongboxes on high-tier maps, particularly Tier 17 maps.

More importantly, once you've acquired enough Chaos Orbs through farming, you can use this currency to roll strongboxes again to increase their rarity, further boosting subsequent farming rewards - this currency consumption is essential.

How To Maximize The Effectiveness Of Strongbox Farming?

Building upon the core strategy above, you first need to unlock truly effective strongboxes nodes, rather than unlocking every node related to strongboxes, which will only waste your points.

Generally, it's recommended to prioritize unlocking nodes that can duplicate currency and divination cards, increasing the chance of reopening strongboxes, or corrupting them to make them rarer.

Additionally, Niko-related Atlas passive tree nodes deserve special mention. These nodes increase your chances of encountering Niko on the map, increasing the number of additional strongboxes you find and maximizing your rewards.

When choosing maps, prioritize running T17 maps, as they contain additional barrels that drop bonus loot. However, ensure you can handle the enemies spawned by strongboxes on higher-level maps, as losing to them will actually reduce your rewards.

If you're unsure which maps to farm, we recommend Defiled Cathedral and Jungle Valley.

Best Maps

Defiled Cathedral has a circular layout with a main corridor and numerous platforms along the way. Potential bosses include Woad, Mockery of Man. Here, you simply need to defeat all the enemies you encounter.

In contrast, Jungle Valley offers a more in-depth farming strategy. You can combine Legion or Breach encounters, or other nodes and passive skills, on this map to maximize enemy density and high-value drops.

When farming Jungle Valley using map devices with the legion affix, you can maximize encounters by clearing all monster groups. Overlapping Legion and Breach encounters further speed up the clearing process.

It's worth noting that when farming currency using legions on the map, you can choose to avoid bosses, as they will take more time, but the rewards are not proportional to that.

Also Read: Path Of Exile 3.27 Genesis Tree Guide | Best Nodes Recommendation For Maximum Rewards

It's also worth noting that you can increase the reward drop rate of Jungle Valley by allocating frequently used map slots to it, or by placing a slot on an adjacent map.

At the same time, don't forget to utilize Eater of Worlds influence. It allows related altars to consistently provide more valuable currency drops, such as Chaos Orbs or Unmaking Orbs. Furthermore, enemies affected by this influence are easier to control.

In summary, the steps to running maps to obtain more strongboxes or direct currency drops are as follows:

• 1. Obtain the map through trading, crafting, or drops.
• 2. Add usable affixes and scarabs.
• 3. Prioritize finding and activating altars to gain valuable buffs.
• 4. Utilize the buffs from other map devices.
• 5. Clear the entire map.

How Profitable Is It?

The most frequently dropped currency type using this farming strategy is Divine Orbs. Based on the rarity of this currency and the changes to 3.27 league drop mechanics, on average, even with bad luck, you'll find one Divine Orb in various junk drops per map run.

Combined with the investment in increasing map value and the average time to complete a map (approximately five minutes if you're skilled), the overall return is quite good, as you can't always be unlucky enough to only get the minimum value.

This concludes the guide to using map running to obtain strongboxes and thus complete currency farming in Path of Exile Keepers League. If you're accumulating currency, this should help!

Path of Exile announced that the second week's patch for 3.27 will be released this week. In addition to fixing some bugs and improving the game, this patch adds over 80 previously unfinished Foulborn Unique items.

The official preview of PoE Patch 3.27.0c has been released, which fixes issues such as Breach, Scarabs, and other bugs, bringing numerous changes.

QoL Bug Fix

Patch PoE 3.27.0c fixes a bug that allowed players to consume PoE currency stored in their Map Device when using it on maps, including Strongboxes and Essences.

Some players are quite surprised by this, as many considered it a very convenient and beneficial feature, saving inventory space and improving map clearing efficiency, so this fix seems to be a nerf.

Boss Related

• 1. Fixed a bug where the endgame bosses' Ignite damage was too high; it is now 2–3 times the normal amount.
• 2. Incarnation of Dread can no longer be stunned while casting Fire Circle skill.

Breach Enhancements

Breach mechanics have been significantly improved. While there's no direct increase in loot, the number of monsters has increased. Here are the main changes to Breach in this patch:

• The amount of Graftblood players can obtain in level 83 Maps has increased by 25%.
• The number of monster groups spawning per wave in Breach encounters and maps has increased, with an 80% increase in level 83 Maps.
• The number of destructible Hive pack generators has increased by 40%.
• Ailith provides slightly more skill objects in Breach Hive encounters.
• Destroying a burnable Hive pack spawner releases a purple fire wave that destroys all walls within a 7.5-meter radius and may trigger a chain reaction.
• Fixed an issue where the visual effect of burns breach Hive walls did not match their actual effective range.
• A confirmation prompt will now appear if there are unsaved changes when Genesis Tree is closed.

Although many players dislike Breach mechanic, this patch significantly improves it. Destroying a burnable Hive pack spawner now burns a large area of walls and can trigger a chain reaction, making it easier for players to rush to the center and start combat with minimal deviation. This will make Hivebrain Gland maps much more juicy.

Additionally, monster spawn rates will be greatly increased, as will wombgifts and Graftblood, with a reduced Graftblood consumption. While this doesn't solve all problems, it's certainly an improvement.

Scarabs Enhancements

This patch includes numerous adjustments to scarabs:

• Scarab of Divinity: Maximum number increased from 2 to 3. The number of rare monsters affected by Pantheon-Touched in the area also increased from 2 to 3.
• Horned Scarab of Nemeses: Maximum number increased from 1 to 2.
• Torment Scarab of Possession: Maximum number of Possessions reduced from 4 to 3, and increases the chance of rare monsters in the area being possessed by up to 3 tormented spirits.
• Titanic Scarab of Legend: Now grants unique monsters in the area 4 additional modifiers (up from 2), significantly increasing their drop rate and difficulty.
• Torment Scarab: Possessed monsters have a 50% chance to be released (up from 25%).
• Allflame Ember of Propagation: Increases the number of monster groups in the area by approximately 50%.
• Legion Scarab of Eternal: Within the affected area, the rewards for defeating Legion monsters increase by 30% with each subsequent Legion monster killed.
• Abyss Scarab of Profound Depth: Monsters spawning from Abyss gain rewards based on the depth of Abyss cave from which they originate.
• Horned Scarab of Bloodlines: Now grants Magic Monsters an additional modifier in addition to its existing effects.
• Beyond Scarab of Haemophilia: Killing Beyond Rare Monsters has a 30% chance to temporarily grant their modifier, equivalent to a Headhunter. The effects of these buffs are significant.

The above scarabs have received substantial enhancements, which will spur many new farming methods. Their market value skyrocketed after the announcement. For example, Legion Scarab of Eternal, Horned Scarab of Bloodlines, and Horned Scarab of Nemeses can generate insane profits.

Impact On Builds

The bug that caused players to convert monster physical damage to elemental damage has been fixed. This bug would convert all monster physical damage into elemental damage. Players with low elemental resistance would take more damage.

Additionally, monster elemental damage affixes have been increased by up to 300%, making the penalty for adding physical damage as additional elemental damage in map affixes more severe. This bug also affects Elementalist passive skills Shaper of Flames, Pyroshock Clasp Unique Belt, and Kaom's Binding Unique Belt.

This bug had a huge impact on Elementalist builds, almost destroying them. After it was fixed, Elementalist builds. are definitely worth trying.

Overall, while the official update brought several fixes, player feedback suggests it didn't bring any revolutionary changes. They even fixed a bug that could have increased QoL (likely for game file security).

Most player complaints focus on insufficient loot drops. Although the patch increased the frequency of encounters and the number of monsters, this is essentially a multiple of zero, and ground loot drops haven't been effectively improved. However, after the patch goes live, players can try using the modified scarabs to see if they get a more significant increase in loot drops.

Upon entering a new PoE league, to quickly farm sufficient resources, you'll need to learn new content and adapt to updates to existing mechanics, especially if these updates enhance your combat power.

Take the recent Keepers league as an example. This league introduced a new crafting system called Genesis Tree, which, once unlocked, grants various bonuses, one of which is granting Foulborn Uniques.

Returning to our initial point - Foulborn Uniques aren't a completely new mechanic. Instead, they utilize Genesis Tree to replace the original modifiers of your existing Uniques with new and potentially more powerful ones.

As you know, enhanced affixes mean a more powerful piece of gear, and the changes brought by "Foulborn" mean you can utilize the gear to create more build crafting possibilities.

Next, we'll explain the workings of Foulborn Uniques in 3.27 league, as well as Uniques and their affix effects that significantly impact the meta game.

Overview Of Foulborn Unique Items

First, not all unique items have a chance to unlock a Foulborn variant; this mechanism only exists in certain gear. Once the variant is unlocked, the corresponding gear's name will be marked with a purple "Foulborn" prefix.

Aside from the affix replacement, Foulborn Uniques are no different from other unique items. Items with Foulborn variants typically have about 2-4 affixes that can be replaced.

To obtain Foulborn unique items in 3.27 league, the following methods are possible:

• Add Ancient Wombgift to Genesis Tree, which increases the chance of obtaining Foulborn affix by affecting the type of item generated.
• Obtain Grasping Coffer chest in Hive Fortress or Hive Colony.
• Defeating It That Was Esh in Hive Colony as a drop.

Which Foulborn Uniques Have Significant Impacts On The Meta Game?

While there is just a part of gear with Foulborn variants, not all of them have equally powerful effects. Some effects only improve the experience of certain parts of the battle, while others can impact the entire league's mechanics.

Midnight Bargain

Of the two Foulborn variants of this item, the one that increases the maximum number of Golems summoned by +2 is more important, as this effect works exceptionally well when combined with The Dark Monarch.

The Dark Monarch randomly generates some summon types, including Golems. While you cannot summon other types of summons during this time, combining it with Foulborn variant of Midnight Bargain expands the maximum number of Golems available.

Undoubtedly, this is a very useful effect for summoner classes and builds, but its effectiveness depends on overcoming its health and energy shield loss drawbacks.

Because this Foulborn unique works by causing you to lose a certain percentage of health per second, you will die once this percentage accumulates to a sufficient level. Therefore, you must ensure you have a way to continuously regenerate health.

Generally, methods that can help you do this include equipping skill gems with regeneration effects or unlocking Eternal Youth keystone passive skill. There are many options; once you find one, you can use Midnight Bargain without hesitation.

Warped Timepiece

This Foulborn unique item has only one alternative affix, which increases the rate at which debuffs on you disappear by 100%. The best way to maximize this affix's effect is to combine it with Beacon of Madness boots.

These boots grant you the level 1 Embrace Madness skill, which is beneficial, but it constantly applies debuffs, once every two seconds in 3.27 league. This means that every two seconds you will be randomly affected by one of four debuffs.

These debuffs might reduce movement speed, increase damage taken, or reduce regeneration speed - all generally bad, and each lasts for 20 seconds.

However, Warped Timepiece solves this problem. Its Foulborn affix reduces the chance of Beacon of Madness debuff reappearing, preventing it from stacking and eliminating most of the negative effects, allowing you to focus on enjoying the boots' benefits.

The Oppressor

This Foulborn unique shield has two affix effects. While their specific functions differ, both provide damage reduction, enhancing your defense and survivability.

The original affixes were designed with the same principle in mind, but combining them actually weakened the overall effect of the shield. Therefore, the game addressed this through Foulborn mechanic.

Now, The Oppressor's two Foulborn variants offer a 10-15% chance to completely avoid all damage and a 20-30% chance to block spell damage.

This makes the spell suppression chance provided by this shield even stronger than the highest-tier affix of a normal rare shield. Combined with a similarly high attack block chance, it will make your character extremely resilient in the current league.

Kiloava's Bluster

This is another excellent shield-type shield we'll discuss. Previously, one of its affix effects gave you a 30-40% chance of having your elemental resistance treated as 90% when attacked by enemies. The problem with this affix is ​​that if it fails to trigger, it's completely useless.

Now, in 3.27 league, Foulborn affix in Kiloava's Bluster can replace the old affix with a more aggressive one, giving you a 25% chance to reverse monster elemental resistances.

This means that when you attack a single enemy, there's a 25% chance their elemental resistances will be treated as reduced by 50%. In simpler terms, three out of four times you'll deal half damage, but once you'll deal triple damage, resulting in a 50% increase in total damage.

Combined with other bonuses provided by Kiloava's Bluster, such as considerable dodge and block chances, it will help you progress through league faster by dealing more damage.

That's all for this time. In fact, there are many more powerful Foulborn Uniques available in the game, and more will be added after 3.27.0c Patch this week! Stay tuned!