Path Of Exile Hexblast Mines Build

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!