News Tag: PoE 2 Patch 0 4 0

PoE 2 patch 0.4.0 has been out for almost a month, bringing numerous buffs, nerfs, skill reworks, and even some hidden changes, completely altering how many builds function.

Let's take a look at the current meta builds and see which ones are the winners of this patch and which are suitable for starting the season and heading straight to the endgame.

Tier D Builds

Hollow Palm Builds

Hollow Palm builds are one of the biggest losers of Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0. This is because this build relies almost entirely on stacking attack speed, and many sources of attack speed in the game have been nerfed in patch 0.4.0; Charge Regulation talent has lost its “more” attack speed bonus, and runes that previously stacked attack speed are now limited.

More importantly, the core gem's effect has changed from a separate source of more attack speed to a weaker increase in attack speed.

Life Stacking Blood Leech builds

Before Patch 0.4, this type of build was unexpectedly powerful, as it could stack multiple synergistic bonuses that the developers hadn't anticipated. Combined with the old Regeneration, players could gain 3 to 4 times the extra life, making them able to withstand almost any damage.

However, this mechanism has been completely removed. The life stacking key talent now has a cap of 40%, and Regeneration has been reworked, causing Rathpith to lose its most powerful synergy effect.

Frenzy Consuming Bow Build

Although patch 0.4 numerically buffed Frenzy Consuming Bow skill, the significant nerf to Frenzy Bow in patch 0.3 still doesn't solve the consumables problem.

Whirlwind And Similar Mobile Melee Builds

In previous patches, players could gain 100% damage reduction, maintaining high-speed movement while channeling or attacking. This type of build was severely impacted by the rework of the movement speed penalty mechanism. The movement rune on boots has been nerfed, the chest armor affix that removes penalties has been removed, and penalty reductions on the talent tree have been weakened and scattered.

General Staff Caster Builds (No Infusion)

Staff actually received a comprehensive damage boost in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, but the problem is that Infusion-based builds received a huge increase in damage, and Witchhunter's Sorcery Ward skill became extremely powerful. In comparison, non-Infusion builds cannot compete with it on either offense or defense.

Tier C Builds

General Deadeye Bow Build

Deadeye was very strong in patch 0.3.0, but the rework of Tailwind in version 0.4 caused him to fall drastically. Now each stack of Tailwind only provides 1% skill speed and 5% dodge. Most fatally, the old damage reduction effect has been completely removed, which was once a core part of Deadeye's survivability.

Crossbow Multishot Build

Crossbow as a whole has been affected by the global attack speed nerf, making it feel clunky and difficult to reach its full potential. With rune stacking weakened, it can't reach its previous heights.

Twister Rolling Stacking Build

This is another victim of the attack speed changes. Whirlwind is still fun, and Twister Rolling is still enjoyable, but the new changes have made them feel sluggish and significantly reduced in power.

Bleed Builds

Bleed itself wasn't nerfed, but it didn't receive any meaningful buffs either. Meanwhile, critical strike and elemental builds were buffed, and the addition of Druid talent reshaped the strength-side talent tree, making some older bleed builds less efficient.

Minion Invoker Build

The Invoker received some reworks in Patch 0.4.0, retaining more Spirits and reducing dodge penalty. However, Unbound Avatar was severely nerfed, making the summon's burst damage somewhat insufficient, but it's still playable.

Tier B Builds

Lightning or Flame Infusion Sorceress Build

Infusion builds are winners of Patch 0.4.0. Flame Infusion particularly benefits from the new 20-40% damage bonus on support abilities. Maintaining Infusion is now easier, and the new energy orb absorption range is also very helpful.

This build has excellent damage, and excellent farming speed, but its survivability may be inconsistent. Lightning Infusion is slightly faster, but also faces survivability issues.

Cold Infusion Sorceress Build

Similar to Flame Infusion, the enhanced support abilities make Cold Infusion even more powerful, and the upgrade to Infusion maintenance is also a huge help. It performs exceptionally well in the mid-game, although its single-target damage is slightly lower than Flame, it has better crowd control.

Spear Frenzy Consumer Build

Spear build has received a significant buff in this League. Spear skill, which consumes Frenzy Charges, has received a meaningful numerical increase. While attack speed nerf does affect it, the increase in base damage compensates for this.

Staff Crit Caster Build

Due to the buff to support gems, coupled with the increased damage of the staff itself, this build is back in the meta. It's still not as durable as Tier S build, but in patch 0.4, its burst damage is very high.

Chronomancer Curse Stacker Build

Chronomancer can now completely ignore the curse count cap. This means you can cast multiple utility, offensive, and defensive curses simultaneously without worrying about the cap, although it still requires excellent gear.

Gemhand Melee Build

Due to talent tree adjustments and some item buffs, Gemhand builds are now stronger. Their upgrade path is smooth and their gameplay is unique, but they haven't yet reached top-tier strength.

Warbringer Slam Build

A reworked node for Warbringer, increasing damage against enemies with completely broken armor. It's a very real buff for heavy strike builds. Overall damage is good, mobility is decent, and survivability is average.

Smith of Kitava Spirit Build

It received a small but meaningful buff in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, especially with the chest armor talent's damage reduction doubling, but it still falls short of meta builds.

Amazon Hybrid Infusion Build

Amazons now automatically receive all three infusions, making its leveling process very smooth, but they lack some damage compared to Infusion Sorceress builds.

Tier A Builds

Titan Hulkform Shapeshifter And Mace Slam Build

The introduction of the new Druid passive ability has had a huge impact on Titans. Titan's Ascendancy talent provides a 50% increase to all minor talent points, while Druid talent tree is filled with powerful and efficient minor nodes. This also makes Titan Mace Slam damage even higher.

Titan Crossbow Build

You get excellent defensive growth from the minor node bonuses, while the crossbow benefits from Titan's survivability. This build doesn't have insane damage, but it strikes a balance between damage and safety.

Rain of Arrows Build

ROA still achieves 100% movement speed penalty reduction on attack, meaning ROA is currently the only build in the entire game that allows you to maintain full movement speed while attacking.

Witchhunter Sorcery Ward Build

This is one of the biggest winners in terms of defense in version 0.4. Now, Sorcery Ward can absorb all types of damage, including physical, chaos, and elemental damage, not just spell damage. Combining Witchhunter's inherent evasion and skill characteristics, you get one of the most resilient and safest spellcasters in the game.

Invoker Spirit Caster Build

Compared to Summoner variant, the changes to Unbound Avatar have little impact on this build, while the adjustments to Spirit are a direct buff.

Crit Bow Deadeye Build

Despite suffering significant defensive nerfs, Deadeye's damage remains excellent. Tailwind still provides movement speed, and the glancing damage reduction mechanic is also very helpful.

Tier S Builds

Pathfinder Builds

Pathfinder is perhaps the most comprehensive and biggest winner of this patch. It can now build talent trees from almost any area, and can convert all small attribute points into global damage, global defense, or resource cost reduction. Furthermore, Pathfinder gains a 120% movement speed bonus while sprinting and is even immune to knockdowns, allowing you to play almost any build with Pathfinder.

Sorceress Trinity Infusion Build

Simultaneously running three Infusions provides a massive damage bonus, covers multiple damage types, has a huge hit range, and excellent endgame scaling. This is likely one of the most powerful builds in this patch.

Witch Hunter Sorcery Ward Hybrid Build

By combining the new Sorcery Ward, Infusion spell bonuses, and hybrid low-health Spirit stacking, you'll gain a build with huge burst damage, high movement speed, and full advantage of the maximum defensive buffs in Patch 0.4.0.

These are the general build gameplay tips for Patch 0.4.0. Check your build's tier; if you feel it's not strong enough, try switching to stronger builds.

Common PoE 2 build crafting approaches generally start with a specific class or Ascendancy, then build around a core skill. However, if you prefer, you can also craft builds centered on a specific weapon type.

For example, after patch 0.4.0 went live, because of the buff to the support gem Eternal Rage, you'll find that spears are a weapon type that offers both a great gameplay experience and convincing performance.

Based on this, we will introduce how to craft a build that primarily uses spears. You can also consider this a general playstyle, and then further adjust it according to your actual needs.

Basic crafting approach

First, spears are weapons that focus on Strength and Dexterity attributes, excelling at delivering powerful thrusting attacks from a distance, providing good battlefield control.

As for the essential support gem Eternal Rage, it passively generates rage over time by consuming mana. Each stack of rage increases attack power, allowing your spear and the entire build to easily maintain high damage output.

Basically, the crafting approach for this build is to equip a spear as your main weapon, and a scepter in your off-hand to provide enough spirit for Eternal Rage to generate rage, thus gaining a large amount of extra damage.

On top of this, you can add some freezing skills to freeze enemies and deal extra cold damage. This is very effective when encountering bosses, especially as you become stronger in the endgame.

If possible, we also recommend unlocking Acceleration Shrine buff during combat. It temporarily and significantly increases character speed, especially movement speed and projectile speed, making your endgame experience smoother and faster.

Which gems must be added?

While weapon-focused builds are not entirely the same as traditional builds, skills and support gems remain very important components. For spear builds, the first skill you should equip is Glacial Lance.

This skill converts 60% of physical damage to cold damage by consuming mana and effectively penetrates all targets. Interestingly, when you use this skill to traverse the map, you'll see a frenzy charge icon.

Then, if you throw the spear, this charge disappears and creates a small shockwave behind you. This means your spear is empowered by the frenzy charges from Glacial Lance, allowing it to create explosions and deal massive damage.

It's important to note that you must add Oisín's Oath to your Glacial Lance, which will solve all your mana problems. You'll also need to add support gems that increase movement speed so you can move faster while throwing spears.

When encountering a boss, you can first apply Sniper's Mark, then attack the boss a few times to generate frenzy charges and generate rage with your scepter.

Then you can continue adding gems like Wind Dancer, Magnified Effect, Elemental Armament, Deadly Poison II, and Bursting Plague. This way, whenever an enemy attacks you, it will create a small explosion that poisons all surrounding enemies.

Eventually, when enemies get close to you, they will be frozen, their movement speed will be reduced by 50%, and you can simply walk past them and kill them with poison - provided you have enough cold damage bonuses.

How to choose and craft your gear?

After using a regular spear during the early stages, you need to buy PoE 2 currency to trade for better spear options and then add more available sockets to it.

You should ensure your spear is an elemental spear with onslaught and attack skills, making sure it has a cold damage modifier. Then, you can combine attack elemental damage modifiers and cold damage modifiers to get more freezing effects.

We usually recommend adding Atziri's Contempt Pronged Spear, which can increase various types of damage and your attack speed.

After equipping a suitable scepter in your off-hand, if you find you can't generate frenzy charges when facing a boss, you can solve this by casting Sniper's Mark on the boss, and your next Glacial Lance will be empowered.

Based on this, Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre with extra fire damage is worth having. But if you don't have enough currency, you can choose the more common Guiding Palm of the Eye Scepter, which can freeze and slow down enemies.

As for other gear, first, make sure your gloves have cold damage bonuses or some fixed cold damage, because you need to stack as much cold damage as possible to trigger the freezing effect.

When choosing rings, your main goal should be better mob clearing, so Polcirkeln is a good option. For armor, we recommend Morior Invictus Grand Regalia.

Summary

In summary, Patch 0.4.0 further refined the combat pace and weapon mechanics, allowing spear-based builds to develop clearer and more appealing crafting and gameplay strategies.

Based on the strategies we've provided, you can utilize spears and their related builds to achieve more consistent damage output in multiple aspects, not only suppressing regular enemies from a safe distance but also dealing considerable damage to bosses.

In terms of defense, spear builds primarily rely on distance, control, and evasion mechanics, combined with armor or energy shields to create a balanced defense against enemies.

That concludes our guide for today. If your class is suitable for using spears as a weapon, feel free to try our build crafting guide!

Temples in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 have undergone several adjustments and improved significantly thanks to hotfix 15. However, some players who haven't completed their temple construction may be looking for new farming methods.

Therefore, we'll introduce a farming method utilizing Boss Rush. This method relies on high-value items dropped by bosses. The drop rate isn't entirely consistent, but once you obtain one, you can easily earn dozens of Divine Orbs.

Tablets

This strategy is actually quite simple. Since your goal is to enter Anomaly maps, you need to fulfill certain prerequisites.

You'll need at least some regular Tablets. The only affix you need to focus on is the percentage increase in experience gain; other affixes and attributes are irrelevant. Your goal is to speedrun straight to the boss, kill it, and leave. The monster hordes cleared along the way provide experience.

The real reason for speedrunning bosses is to open up paths to those map nodes that drop high-value items. Once you successfully enter a high-value map, you'll need to prepare a special set of Tablets:

Visions of Paradise Precursor Tablet

When you actually reach these target maps, it's time to change your Tablets. You'll need to replace an Experience Stone with a Visions of Paradise Precursor Tablet.

It's currently worth about 1 Divine Orb, but even if it requires more PoE 2 currency, it's still worth it. This is because it allows you to run the map again, effectively doubling your chance of obtaining the target item.

Farming Targets

Currently, Temporal Sandstorm map has one ultimate drop: Garukhan's Resolve, worth approximately 100 POE 2 Divine Orbs. Eye of the Storm map drops Rockyott's Flow, worth approximately 85 Divine Orbs.

The drop rates for both items are unknown, but it's certain that the rates are extremely low. Therefore, you can't expect them to appear every time. These anomaly maps are like lottery tickets, with Garukhan's Resolve and Rockyott's Flow being the grand prizes.

How to Find Anomaly Maps?

Eye of the Storm and Temporal Sandstorm don't appear completely randomly, and they typically spawn in certain types of areas.

Eye of the Storm generates in coastal areas, so you need to explore towards the water. Temporal Sandstorm generates in desert areas, so look for sandy terrain.

If you want to make it easier, head towards nearby towers while exploring to quickly scout and reveal the terrain.

If you want to focus more on maximizing loot drops rather than pure experience, you can use The Grand Project Precursor Tablet. It doesn't require much currency and reveals nearby map areas, allowing you to move faster across the overworld.

When you find the target map, some lines will point to a whirlpool for Eye of the Storm, the beam points to a water whirlpool, and for Temporal Sandstorm, it points to a desert whirlpool. You only need to complete the associated maps where beams point to whirlpools.

Inside the boss of each map, there's an object you need to click. Clicking it will unlock the final map. You need to complete all the associated maps around the whirlpool. Once completed, the whirlpool will disappear, and you can then run Anomaly maps.

Atlas Tree

One of the most important aspects is Atlas talent tree. You can use a fairly standard talent tree, similar to Abyss farming strategies, the core of which is amplifying the effect of the stone tablets.

You can use talent points to further amplify the experience gain percentage. This talent tree also increases the effect of Waystones, as stronger Waystones will give us more experience.

The main difference between this and Abyss strategy is that you can prioritize talent points granted by map bosses that increase experience, as XP is also one of your primary goals in this process, and you'll need to kill a large number of map bosses.

Map Crafting

When crafting maps, you should use Alchemy Orb to give the map 4 affixes, Exalted Orb to increase it to 6 affixes, and then Vaal Orb.

Using Vaal Orb has two good outcomes: you might get a Tier 16 map and retain all previous affixes, which will give you more experience; or you might get one or two additional affixes, potentially reaching 8 affixes, resulting in better drops and experience.

However, there is an important caveat: when running Anomaly maps that might drop lineage gems, your character risks dying if the monsters are too strong.

Therefore, it's recommended to run maps with fewer affixes, as this will give you multiple portals, preventing you from directly ruining your chances of obtaining high-value loot even if you make a mistake.

Uber Arbiter Keys

While using this farming strategy, you'll find maps with red pillars of light. These maps drop keys used to challenge Uber Arbiter.

To maximize your gains from these keys, their drop rate can actually be based on the same as Waystone drop rate. Therefore, when crafting maps, if a map has a high Waystone drop rate, you can use it on these pillar-of-light maps.

However, this makes combat quite difficult because the bosses on these maps deal high damage. You can choose to ignore them and only pursue top drops from Anomaly maps. These maps, however, can provide a stable profit, and you might even consider running Visions of Paradise Tablet on them.

Currently, these might be worthwhile, but the value of Uber Arbiter keys needs frequent monitoring. If the value of Visions of Paradise tablet is very close or equal to it, then there's no need to focus on these maps anymore.

The advantage of this strategy is that it can help you level up, but the disadvantage is that it's highly dependent on luck, and you'll need some basic currency to trade for Visions of Paradise tablets. It's recommended to run this strategy right after reaching the endgame.

In Path of Exile 2, gear determines your damage cap, but many players only know how to farm currency, not how to craft gear. For these players, trading directly with currency is easier.

This is because gear in Path of Exile 2 is quite complex. Crafting gear requires understanding the role of currency and also relies on luck. If you can craft gear yourself, you can use this technique to earn PoE 2 currency.

Below, we'll discuss crafting techniques for wanderers and staff. You can use this method to craft weapons for your build, or focus on profitability.

Base Selection

This technique focuses more on profitability, so when choosing a base, prioritize wanderers and staff with the highest market demand. You can observe which gear sells for more PoE 2 currency, and this basically reflects it demand.

A base with physical bases and the +6 spell skills affix can sell for 3 Divine orbs, while a base with +7 ice and +7 cold damage can only sell for 2. The base itself also has some influence, but not a significant one.

• Dueling Wand: It provides the spellslinger attribute, usually allowing the finished product to sell for a few more Divine Orbs.
• Attuned Wand: Attuned Wands have much lower demand for Mana Drain, but can still sell quickly and generate a good profit.

Other wands don't have as useful inherent attributes as the two bases mentioned above. They might be used in meta builds in other leagues, but in patch 0.4.0 and above, these two wands sell best.

The same applies to staff, and you can choose a Chiming Staff with level 7 Sigil of Power or a Reaping Staff, as players building a Reap Blood Mage build might really need this staff.

You should prioritize bases with open prefixes. Prefixes occupied by useless affixes like mana will reduce their value.

How To Craft?

Start With Magic Items

Crafting gear starting with Magic Items is the most straightforward method. You can choose to obtain a Magic base with a spell that grants +5 elemental damage or +6 spell skill level. Then, use currency to add a suffix. Adding critical strike chance is recommended, as it's harder to obtain than cast speed, and therefore often results in a more valuable finished product.

If your Magic base has unwanted mana prefixes, it's not a major problem. You can combine Essence of the Abyss and Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation to guarantee that the maximum mana affix on an item becomes Mark of the Abyss. Then, use Preserved Jawbone to convert Mark of the Abyss into a Desecrated mod.

Next, use Omen of Dextral Necromancy with Preserved Jawbone to ensure that this desecration applies to the suffix. This time, your goal is to gain cast speed or critical strike damage bonus. You can also activate Omen of Abyssal Echoes to increase the chance of getting good affixes. Once you successfully gamble on the ideal affix, this Wand can sell for dozens of Divine Orbs.

The total currency required for this step is as follows:

• Essence of the Abyss: Removes a modifier and adds a Mark of the Abyss.
• Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation: Makes Corrupted Essence only affect the prefix.
• Preserved Jawbone: Can desecrate your weapon or quiver.
• Omen of Dextral Necromancy: Makes desecration only affect suffixes.
• Omen of Abyssal Echoes: Allows you to roll an extra time when revealing a desecrated affix.

Recombinator Strategy

When you think you're using too much currency with your Magic Base, here's an alternative, and you'll need two Bases.

• A Magic Dueling Wand with +5 Cold Damage.
• A Magic Wand with either T4 Cast Speed or T4 Crit Chance.

Put these two Bases into Recombinator and combine them. If the affixes you need appear on the same item, you've succeeded. The crit chance base is more valuable, with a success rate of approximately 12%, while Cast Speed has a success rate of approximately 65%, and their actual value is roughly the same.

After a successful reconstitution, you will obtain a rare item with two core affixes. The subsequent steps are similar to the first step; you will need to use Omen of Dextral Necromancy and Preserved Jawbone to desecrate the third affix, again aiming for cast speed or critical strike damage bonus. Finally, use Exalted Orbs to fill in the remaining affixes.

Even if the reconstitution fails, the two bases are only worth 5 to 6 Divine Orbs in total. And in the worst-case scenario, selling the item crafted from the failed base will still be enough to recoup your lost currency, so you will essentially not lose currency.

How To Sell Them?

You can go to PoE 2 trading platform and see how much currency others are selling similar gear to your finished product for. Focus on finished products that have been listed for a day without selling, indicating they are not worth so much currency.

If your finished product has fire damage leech, you can also search for chilling and lightning damage leech affixes, as their value is roughly the same. If you're using a Dueling Wand as your base, you can sell it for more currency than a regular Wand.

You could initially set a high currency number based on market rates, and if it doesn't sell within a few days, gradually lower it. Even if you only sell two or three times the amount of currency you consumed, you'll still make a profit.

This is still a gamble, so don't expect to make top-tier wands or staff every time. Out of ten wands, you might only make a big profit once. It's recommended that you start by mastering currency and manipulation using the first method before transitioning to the second.

In Path of Exile 2, currency is paramount. Crafting and selling items revolve around currency. Having hundreds of Divine Orbs allows you to acquire top-tier gear at will.

However, some efficient currency farming methods are often complex, and players need to reach endgame to start farming. So, are there any easier ways to acquire currency in Patch 0.4.0? Absolutely! With the following 6 methods, you can acquire currency at any time.

1. Salvaging Items

You'll find a lot of equipment while farming maps. The number in the upper right corner of the equipment icon represents its quality, which is related to its base stats. Items with sockets or of higher quality are more valuable after dismantling.

When you return to camp, find the merchant NPC and sell these quality or socketed items to her like you would in a normal game. You won't get gold, but you'll get Armourer's Scrap and Blacksmith's Whetstones.

These basic currencies have stable demand throughout the early and late game. Although their individual value is low, they add up to a very stable income.

• Blacksmith's Whetstones and Armorer's Scrap: Valued at 1:4 or 1:2 Exalted Orbs.
• Gemcutter's Prism: 1:1 exchange rate for Exalted Orbs.
• Artificer's Orb: Approximately 1:5 exchange rate with Exalted Orbs.

Remember to sell these base currencies promptly to avoid stockpiling and devaluation. It's recommended to exchange them for Exalted Orbs or the more stable Divine Orbs.

2. Selling Gems

Skills in PoE 2 exist as skill gems, and monsters drop many extra, especially support skill gems. Many players may temporarily lack a support gem when configuring their skills, and instead of farming, they'll trade it, making this a profitable method.

You simply need to open your shop, set the amount of these extra skill gems you want to exchange them for, and then list them for sale.

Uncut Support Gems have a high drop rate and can be exchanged for Exalted Orbs at a 1:1 ratio. High-level Uncut Spirit Gems can sell for more than 10 Exalted Orbs. Flasks with popular affixes can also be sold for 1 Exalted Orb.

3. Gambling

Orbs of Chance The effect is to upgrade a common item into a unique item or destroy it. This method relies heavily on luck and is not recommended for beginners, as you don't know which items are worth gambling on. It's recommended to use Orbs of Chance on Heavy Belt, giving you a chance to obtain Headhunter Belt, currently one of the most valuable unique items.

However, this method requires some Orbs of Chance as starting capital. If you haven't farmed this currency, you can enter the cheap and reliable PoE 2 currency shop in IGGM. During the Christmas season, using the XMAS code will give you a 10% discount.

4. Unidentified Items

The first method requires acquiring unidentified or undervalued items, increasing their value through simple crafting, and then selling them. Using this method requires a very good understanding of the market.

The other method requires you to prepare a Dump tab. Open the tab menu and set a value for all items, such as 1 Divine orb.

After returning from this map, put all rare equipment that seems potentially useful into this stash page without identifying it. Other players will browse your shop, searching for the attributes they need. If one of your items matches, they might trade with it.

Periodically, lower the value of items that nobody need them in the stash page and continue selling them.

5. Carries Trials

This method requires you exceptionally good gear and a certain level of proficiency in Trials of Ascendancy. Trials of Ascendancy is one of the biggest challenges players face in the campaign, rewarding Ascendancy Points upon completion, but it's also very difficult, making it hard for players to complete alone.

If you build a very strong character who can easily complete this trial, you can recruit other players to help you complete it. Once you enter and complete the trial, they can finish the quest at the end. If you help 3 people at once, you can collect 3 units of POE 2 currency. (Usually, you get about 1 Divine Orb per person.)

6. Farming Essences

Essences have been in high demand for several leagues. They are a very powerful crafting material. Simply right-click on an Essence, then click on a normal or magic item to change its affixes.

Depending on Essence's effect, you can add specific affixes to equipment, such as cold resistance or increased spell damage. If you encounter high-level, rare Essences, you can earn a lot of currency. For example, one Essence of Hysteria can sell for 200 Exalted Orbs.

On the map, you'll sometimes encounter monsters frozen by purple crystals. These are Essence monsters. Breaking the crystal to release them and defeating them will cause them to drop Essences. To farm Essences, you need to select the relevant node in Atlas Tree.

Atlas Tree node Recommendations:

• Energetic Resonance: Doubles the probability of encountering Essences on the map. Select Attack Modifiers to increase the probability of obtaining a Perfect Essence of Battle.
• Resonant Lattice: Imprisoned monsters have a chance to drop three additional Essences.
• Resonant Light Lattice: Essences found on the map have a 30% higher chance of becoming Perfect Essences.
• Harmonic Corruption: When corrupting Essences monsters, you have a 37% chance to corrupt them an additional time.
• Merging Worlds: Essences monster modifiers have a 25% chance to be replaced with more Essences.

After configuring Atlas Tree, you'll need to use map devices with Contain Additional Essence affix. While each map takes 7-20 Exalted Orbs, the return on investment is high. Also, when encountering essence monsters, it's best to corrupt them with a Vaal Orb before defeating them to obtain more or perfect essence.

If you are severely lacking in currency early on, pick up any quality equipment or extra gems you see while farming. These are your earliest sources of income. Later in the game, you can start researching more efficient farming strategies like Farming Essences.

There are many ways to earn currency in Path of Exile 2, and the safest way is farming on the map, while crafting and selling equipment carries a slight risk.

You can combine these two methods, as you'll also obtain a considerable amount of equipment while farming, and you can use these as bases to craft rare items. So, we'll introduce how to earn currency using Boots.

Which Base To Choose?

First, you'll need level 82 common base boots. Only higher levels have a chance of obtaining higher tier affixes. It is recommends Daggerfoot Shoes here because their base stat includes Intelligence, making them highly sought after by Energy Shield builds and easy to sell on the market.

If you don't have these shoes in your stash, you can trade them on the market, and it won't be a huge investment.

Upgrading The Base

After you have common base boots, use Orb of Transmutation and Orb of Augmentation to enchant them. Your goal is to prioritize Tier 1 Movement Speed ​​(35%). If you get good affixes like high resistance, it will be easier to achieve the 35% movement speed bonus when using Orb of Augmentation later.

• Orb of Transmutation: Transforms a normal item into a magic item and adds an affix.
• Orb of Augmentation: Adds an affix to a magic item.

However, if a bad prefix appears, you don't need to use the expensive Perfect Orb of Augmentation to further modify it. But if a suffix appears, you must use Perfect Orb of Augmentation to try and gain the movement speed bonus.

What To Do With Failed Items?

Getting boots with 35% movement speed isn't a high-probability event, and many failed items will be generated in the process. However, they are still worth modifying. You can use a Regal Orb to turn magic boots into rare items, and then use Exalted Orbs to max out all 6 affixes.

If you unexpectedly get Tier 1 Movement Speed affix during the process of maxing out all affixes, then the boots, regardless of other attributes, can be immediately sold for 0.3-0.5 Divine Orb.

How To Upgrade Them?

Upgrade Failed Items

For boots that consistently lack 35% Movement Speed affix, you can further modify their affixes using Omen of Putrefaction. It will replace all modifiers with unrevealed ones.

However, before corrupting, you must upgrade all sockets to 20% quality to maximize the boots' market value.

After activating Omen of Putrefaction, convert all affixes on the boots into Desecrated Mods. The advantage of corruption is that you can choose one of three Desecrated Mods.

Since the affix type rolled each time is removed in subsequent rolls, you can gradually increase the probability of rolling Movement Speed. While there are many Desecrated modifiers, the overall probability of obtaining 35% movement speed is approximately 1/3 to 1/4.

It's recommended to choose 35% movement speed, and If you choose 30% movement speed affix, subsequent affixes related to movement speed will generally not appear. Before obtaining 35% movement speed, prioritize high-roll percentage or fixed-value dodge, energy shield, or high life, and the specific priority depends on the boot's base type. Boots with a mix of fixed-value dodge and energy shield affixes can be paired with life, while pure energy shield boots do not.

Upgrade Successful Items

For boots with good affixes like 35% movement speed, use Omen of Sinistral Necromancy and Preserved Rib to ensure that the next corruption only affects prefix desecrations.

After corruption, perform an unveil and use Rib to add affixes. Prioritize high-roll fixed-value life or percentage or fixed-value evade. Use Perfect Exalted Orbs or Greater Exalted Orbs in conjunction with Omen of Greater Exaltation to fill in the last 1-2 affixes, and Chaos resistance and elemental resistance are both good affixes.

Market Value

The final value of the finished boots depends on the affix combination. Boots with top-tier affixes can sell for over 10 Divine Orbs, and even those with lower-tier affixes can still fetch 6-7 Divine Orbs.

This method doesn't necessarily require starting with a common base. You can set up a filter and trade level 82 boots that already have several affixes. After maxing out 6 affixes with Exalted Orbs, you can corrupt them, potentially requiring less currency.

Profitability

If you're trading common white base boots, 10 pairs will require 5 Chaos Orbs, plus corruption materials, Omens, etc., for a total consumption of approximately 1.5-3 Divine Orbs.

However, just one pair of boots with 35% movement speed from corruption is enough to cover the crafting consumption of all 10 pairs. Furthermore, since corruption itself is a bonus round. If your bases successfully gain Tier 1 35% movement speed, your profits will increase significantly; even if they fail, you'll basically break even. Therefore, this method almost guarantees profitability.

While it requires some luck, multiple steps mitigate this, ensuring profitability unless your luck is exceptionally bad. However, timing is crucial, as fewer players in the league will reduce the demand for your boots.

If you urgently need currency and lack the time for this method, you can buy cheap and fast PoE 2 currency in IGGM. Currently, there's a Christmas promotion offering a 10% discount with the XMAS code!

Diablo 4 announced at 2025 TGA that Paladin class would be launched in season 11, which brought surprises to players, and Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 was not to be outdone either. In addition to the previously announced new class Druid, the official also announced a new Ascendancy class, Disciple of Varashta, without any warning.

Disciple of Varashta is a Sorceress Ascendancy class. Its gameplay is mainly summoning, and it may be the strongest summoning Ascendancy currently. It has many ways to play, and today we will mainly introduce the gameplay based on Sand Djinn.

Disciple Of Varashta Overview

Disciple of Varashta has three main summons that you can manipulate to cast spells. They are very powerful, but they play differently from a traditional summoning build, and it is more like a spellcaster build.

• Ruzhan, the Blazing Sword: A pure output Djinn that can burst out with powerful damage.
• Kelari, the Tainted Sands: It can not only release spells to cause damage, but also apply a shield to the character.
• Navira, the Last Mirage: A support-oriented Djinn that provides health regeneration and freezes enemies.

Players can choose which Djinn to fight together and order them to use specific skills. Each Ascension talent point grants a Command Skill.

Djinn are invulnerable. Even if all the player's other summoned army dies, the monsters alone can easily clear the map and kill the boss.

You need to increase the damage by stacking summon damage, command skill-related talents, critical strikes, and support gems (Support Gems). All skills of each monster share the same set of auxiliary gem links, and universal damage support gems work well.

Sand Djinn Disciple Of Varashta Build

Advantages And Disadvantages

This build not only has powerful burst damage, but also has a huge energy shield pool. Its ability to regenerate energy shield builds is unparalleled, energy shield regeneration activates extremely quickly, and the farming map experience is smooth and enjoyable.

However, if you pursue maximum damage, Boss battles require frequent button presses, high-intensity operations, and no particularly fast movement methods.

Djinn Select

This build mainly uses Flame Djinn and Sand Djinn to fight together to cause extremely high damage. Additional skill slots for each monster are unlocked at character levels 40, 65, and 90.

Kelari, The Tainted Sands

Its base can cause physical damage, has a high base critical hit rate and additional critical hit damage bonus, and can apply multi-layer critical hit vulnerability effect.

Kelari's Brutality

Djinn throws a row of blades at the cursor, which explodes after a short delay. Store 2 times of use. Both clear map and single target damage are good. It is recommended that you use it before bursting into a combo to apply the critical vulnerability debuff.

Kelari's Deception

Creates an area-of-effect explosion at the cursor, leaving a short-lived clone behind. Store 3 times of use. Continuous use will cause 50% more damage each time, and each surviving clone will copy the explosion effect. Casting 3 times in a row can produce up to 5 explosions. This is one of the most damaging skills in the build and can significantly reduce the boss's health.

Ruzhan, The Blazing Sword

Whenever the player uses a damaging skill, Ruzhan will automatically attack near the cursor, causing moderate damage and applying a basic Exposure effect.

Ruzhan's Brand

The brand is attached to the enemy. Up to 3 of them can exist at the same time and can be stacked on the same target. They will automatically explode after 3 seconds. The damage is acceptable but the priority is low. It is only recommended for players who like extreme active play. It can be cast three times quickly between skills to supplement the damage or clear out dense monster groups.

Ruzhan's Trap

Throws a sword at the cursor, then generates 8 randomly located runes on the ground. If an enemy steps on the rune, a static flame whirlwind will rise that lasts for 4 seconds. The damage of multiple cyclones can be stacked. By casting it close to a wall or in an enclosed area, you can narrow the rune generation area and make the whirlwind more concentrated. This is an excellent map-clearing skill and the single-target damage is also good.

Skill Gems And Gear

• Ruzhan, the Blazing Sword: Bidding II, Muster, Long Fuse II, Hulking Minions. Magnified Area II.
• Kelari, the Tainted Sands: Bidding II, Brutality III, Muster, Hulking Minions, Heft.
• Skeletal Reaver: Fire Attunement, Muster, Feeding Frenzy II, Heft, Immolate.
• Skeletal Storm Mage: Shock, Overcharge, Muster, Feeding Frenzy II, Rapid Casting II.
• Skeletal Sniper: Fire Attunement, Muster, Feeding Frenzy II, Heft, Immolate.
• Skeletal Frost Mage: Rapid Casting II, Muster, Minion Mastery, Multishot II, Projectile Acceleration III.
• Skeletal Arsonist: Fire Attunement, Muster, Multishot II, Feeding Frenzy II, Heft.
• Skeletal Cleric: Meat Shield II, Last Gasp, Rapid Casting II, Minion Mastery.
• Skeletal Brute: Muster, Fire Attunement, Feeding Frenzy II, Heft, Immolate.
• Elemental Weakness: Heightened Curse, Efficiency II, Focused Curse, Magnified Area II, Rapid Casting II.
• Frost Bomb: Potent Exposure, Overabundance I, Spell Echo, Cooldown Recovery II, Short Fuse II.
• Skeletal Warriors: Culling Strike II, Hulking Minions, Muster, Fire Attunement.

Since Ascendancy cannot be performed until the second act, you still need to upgrade in the normal way in the early stage. After obtaining Disciple of Varashta class, the talent tree requires more options to increase the life of the summoned object.

There are no special requirements for equipment. You can even choose all rare equipment, as long as their affixes include increasing the damage of the summons or the level of the summons. However, you can prepare a set of weapons with talent gems that increase the minion area of effect to obtain a larger clearing range. Djinn are very powerful on their own, but the more POE 2 currency you invest in them, the more damage they do.

How To Farm The Map?

Ruzhan's Trap, keep moving and let the enemy trigger the rune. Even if there may be fish that slip through the net, your army of summons will clean them up.

In the boss battle, the exposure effects of Elemental Weakness and Frost Bomb are maintained. If Kelari's Deception has 3 charges, cast it three times in a row to cause a huge burst. Ruzhan's Trap and Kelari's Brutality are both served after cooling.

If you have a lot of Spirit, you can use it to summon Skeletal Reavers and occasionally press Enrage to get a damage boost.

This is just one way to play Disciple of Varashta. You can also play it without playing a pure summoning build and combine it with other spells, as long as they give you a comfortable experience in the campaign.

Path of Exile 2's class and skill combinations are incredibly complex, resulting in numerous playstyles. Unfortunately, summoner builds have consistently lacked a place among the top-tier builds.

While it's unclear whether the new Druid class can change this, each league has a dedicated group of players researching minion builds. Below, we'll examine the performance of minion builds in Patch 0.3.0 and the adjustments in Patch 0.4.0 to see which ones will perform best in Fate of the Vaal league.

Tier S

Spectre Builds

Since skills in Path of Exile 2 aren't tied to classes, you can choose either Spectre Infernalist build or Spectre Shaman build.

Of all summoning skills, Spectre performed best in Patch 0.3.0, allowing you to enslave Spectres to fight for you. The strongest Spectre was Frozen Mandibles. Unfortunately, it was removed in Patch 0.4. As compensation, the developers stated they will buff some summon variants.

Therefore, as long as Spectre builds aren't significantly nerfed, you can use Powered Zealot Spectre to clear monsters and single enemies, or Death Knight Spectres to deal with single enemies.

Ascendancy Recommends

If you're only focusing on the early game, Spectre Shaman has a greater advantage because its Sacred Flow talent can provide a large amount of Spirit by sacrificing charm slots. Thanks to the changes in Act 2 quest Valley of Titans, Shaman can obtain a belt that grants +2 charm slots at lower levels, allowing for a large amount of Spirit early on.

Later in the game, you can respec to Oracle, as Oracle talent tree contains many summon-related nodes, providing strong late-game defense or damage.

Alternatively, you can choose the classic Infernalist build from patch 0.3.0, or Ritualist and Lich using Evergrasping Ring. Shaman and Infernalist may perform similarly with a moderate PoE 2 currency investment, but Lich and Oracle are likely the strongest with top-tier gear.

Tame Beast Builds

This build requires you to control Tamed Beast by switching weapons and using Infernal Legion auxiliary gem to deal area-of-effect fire damage.

Patch 0.4.0 did not significantly nerf its damage, and while the reduction in high-density maps may diminish its value for clearing, Tamed Beast builds remain consistently strong in single-target damage and overall performance, its strength proportional to your PoE 2 currency investment.

Ascendancy Recommends

The energy shield nerf in patch 0.4.0 may make Titan Tamed Beast better, but you can also choose to start as Shaman and transition to Oracle later, again due to the summon life and defense nodes included in the talents, and the higher your summons‘ HP, the higher their damage.

Tier A

Skeleton Archer Ritualist Build

This build requires Ritualist to equip Evergrasping Rings, granting summons additional Chaos that also affects enemies within range. It typically requires Chaos Inoculation to mitigate the additional Chaos damage taken.

This build performs exceptionally well with high investment, but it's not a comfortable early-game choice. Upgrading with summons is not recommended without transitional gear; other skills are usually needed for early game progression, followed by a gear swap to reach full potential later.

In Patch 0.4.0, any summoner build relying heavily on Spirits was affected by reduced reservation efficiency and weakened Relics. However, this build, primarily reliant on the ring's damage boost, was relatively less affected.

Tier B

Skeletal Reaver Builds

Skeletal Reavers gain attack speed and damage by stacking rage. Patch 0.4.0 fixed this skill's description; now, its attack speed bonus only applies when they are enrage-enhanced.

The challenge was ensuring Skeletal Reavers survived after enrage was active. Tecrod's Revenge support gem enhancement solved this problem. It allows summons to survive longer after their health reaches 0, increasing this time from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. Dialla's Desire support gem can improve skill quality, further increasing rage effects, which might potentially lead to higher damage.

Ascendancy Recommends

This skill gem can be used by Titans, Ritualists, Shamans, and Liches, but its effectiveness depends on which class allows Skeletal Reavers to stack rage more efficiently.

Unearth Raise Zombie Builds

This build primarily relies on summoned enhanced zombies that consume Power Charge. Its damage bonus has changed from a fixed 100% to a dynamic value that scales with skill level, meaning high-level zombies have significant damage potential.

You can use Unearth to quickly generate summons for clearing maps. When single-target damage is needed, summon 10-12 enhanced zombies for burst damage. This build is completely unaffected by the reduction in reservation efficiency, but it heavily relies on Power Charge.

The best method is to use new Lineage support gems, which generate one Power Charge every 4 seconds. Additionally, Profane Ritual can consume corpses to generate critical strike orbs.

Sacrifice aura can treat permanently resurrectable summons as corpses, consume them with Profane Ritual, and then resurrect them with Skeletal Cleric, allowing you to continuously generate Power Charge.

Ascendancy Recommends

For this build, Ritualist is the best ascendancy choice because it doesn't rely on a lot of spirit and benefits from Evergrasping Rings and Uul-Netol's Embrace. The problem with this build is that it's relatively cumbersome to operate, and the summoned creatures are temporary and cannot exist indefinitely. Furthermore, using Raise Zombie is very mana-intensive, so you need to be mindful of your resource consumption.

The above minion builds are just basic concepts. You can research how to increase minion damage in new leagues, and perhaps you can even create a stronger build.