Path Of Exile The king in the Mists

While the popularity of Path of Exile 3.26 seems to have waned recently, as long as you’re still playing, you’re likely to discover and utilize many powerful new builds! These will help you achieve even greater progress in the latter 3.26 battles.

This time, we’ll introduce Spectral Throw Trap Build. As a trap build, it not only provides ample DPS but also offers excellent durability and resiliency, and you can continuously optimize it if you wish.

Next, we’ll explain the combat effectiveness of this build and how to craft it in-game.

How To Choose The Right Gem?

Undoubtedly, in Path of Exile, gem selection often represents skill. As the name of the build suggests, the essential gem is Spectral Throw of Trarthus.

As an attack trap skill, when triggered, it fires multiple penetrating projectiles with the same effect as your current melee weapon through the trap, creating a nova of projectiles that then return to the trap location, damaging enemies in its path.

It’s important to note that Spectral Throw of Trarthus is essentially Trarthus version of Spectral Throw. This mechanic, exclusive to League 3.26, completely changes the skill’s properties, even down to its gem tags and mechanics.

Since Spectral Throw of Trarthus throws copies of your weapon at evenly spaced intervals around the trap, you can use it to create a more defensive build without having to worry about positioning like you would with Spectral Throw.

What makes this skill unique compared to most other skills in POE is that you can hit the same target multiple times with the same bullet, allowing you to deal increased damage. If you can keep the bullet on target, you can even hit enemies approximately 4.4 times per second per attack.

This way, if you utilize Spectral Throw Trap Build in enemy-heavy maps or quests, you’ll complete battles faster and earn more POE currency, helping you upgrade your gear quickly for tougher stages.

Glove Mod

Assuming you have sufficient dexterity and intelligence, you can enhance your build and character by adding mods. The glove mod, based on the core Spectral Throw of Trarthus, randomly increases or decreases bullet velocity by 50%.

First, the duration of a projectile is directly related to its velocity. Without the glove mod, projectiles are symmetrical; they launch and return simultaneously. If the trap is centered on an enemy, it might hit the enemy two or three times: once on launch and once on return.

However, with the glove mods increased projectile velocity, you’ll see a change in projectile duration, eliminating the need to reposition yourself. The varying return time of the projectile means you can score extra hits and a higher chance of hitting with your throw.

Another important benefit of the glove mod is that it increases your damage effectiveness by reducing the rolling speed of your projectiles. This allows you to hit at least 10 enemies with almost every trap you throw.

In this scenario, the projectiles don’t actually leave the monster’s attack range, but instead attack at their maximum damage of 4.44 times per second until they are depleted. All projectiles with longer range and duration then enter range to deal even more damage.

How To Choose The Best Gear?

There are many gear combinations suitable for this build, and you can choose based on your needs. A top recommendation is Marohi Erqi, which has decent physical damage and allows you to convert it into lightning or cold damage through the damage conversion mechanic.

Rakiata’s Dance is a good unique greatsword that can be paired with Marohi Erqi, or you can get Ephemeral Edge for even better tanking. However, if you’re looking for even more damage output, Energy Blade is a better choice.

Most of this gear can be obtained through combat drops or traded with other players. After assembling your gear, you can combine three mod prefixes and then roll them with different types of POE currency.

How To Defend And Recover?

Typical trap builds rarely offer recovery, but Spectral Throw Trap Build is an exception. It grants a 90% dodge rate through grace and mage blood flask, allowing you to gain approximately 2500 energy shield (ES) each time you’re hit with Ghost Dance.

If you want to avoid being hit, it’s recommended to use Titanium Spirit Shield at maximum block to gain 5% ES recovery when blocking. Tempest Shield and Replica Reckless Defense can increase your block rate to over 50% and spell block rate to 31%.

Suitable Passive Skills

First, I recommend acquiring Trap Support. This gem allows you to set a trap instead of directly casting a skill. The trap is invisible to enemies, and the first enemy to enter the trigger radius triggers it, creating an additional trap area effect.

The area effect means all traps trigger simultaneously, giving you a wider reach and a significant amount of bonus damage. This also increases your damage to a single target by 10%.

Finally, if you’re not used to melee trap builds, it’s important to ensure your accuracy is high when utilizing Spectral Throw Trap Build. Ideally, your accuracy level should be equal to your intelligence mastery.

We hope this introduction to the build’s crafting and its utilization is helpful. Thank you for reading.

After August arrives, you’re likely increasingly anticipating the release of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.0 at the end of the month. However, Path of Exile 1 actually welcomed a new event just a few days ago!

Called Merciless Gauntlet, it’s launched by renowned Path of Exile streamer Zizaran. It officially began on July 31st and will run until August 10th.

This isn’t the first time Zizaran has launched such an event in the game, but each event’s gameplay varies depending on the related league’s mechanics.

To help you earn event rewards, or at least get a taste of the fun, we will introduce Merciless Gauntlet to you, and some tips for playing it.

About Merciless Gauntlet

Think of it as a hardcore solo, self-found Mercenaries league. During your playthrough, you’ll earn points by defeating bosses and other enemies, and rewards will be awarded based on your points.

It’s important to note that some Merciless Gauntlet gameplay rules are inconsistent with Mercenaries of Trarthus League:

• There are no banned skills.
• Doryani’s Prototype cannot be obtained in any way.
• When challenging bosses, you can only use up to three portals instead of the normal six, otherwise you won’t receive points even if you kill the boss.
• The available Ascendancy classes are based on the previous Legacy of Phrecia settings.

Fortunately, you should still be able to consume existing POE currency to upgrade your gear’s rarity or refresh affixes, thereby enhancing it and earning more event points by killing bosses.

Event Battle Mechanics

In addition to the point-based reward mechanics and main rules mentioned above, most bosses in Merciless Gauntlet have different skills (either enhanced or swappable) than in regular 3.26 gameplay, and it’s even possible to encounter multiple bosses simultaneously.

Furthermore, different campaigns and maps in different acts will have different modifiers. However, Tier 17 maps will not have any additional modifiers and will drop five times more Uber boss fragments.

The following are the playable areas and bosses in this event:

• Campaign (Act 1 - Act 5)
• Campaign (Act 6 - Act 10)
• White Maps (Area Level 68-72)
• Yellow Maps (Area Level 73-77)
• Red Maps (Area Level 78-83)
• Tier 17 Maps (Area Level 84)
• Atlas Bosses (Non-Uber Sirus, Maven, Exarch, etc.): (Area Level 84)
• Uber Bosses (Area Level 85)

All bosses have unique abilities and mechanics. If you plan to fight to the end, it’s best to know which bosses will appear in the next area and their characteristics in advance so you can plan your responses accordingly.

What Tips Might Help You?

Due to the hardcore nature of Merciless Gauntlet, your character only has one life, and once you die, you can’t restart. Therefore, you must stay as safe as possible, even if this initially slows your progress.

Based on this, while killing more difficult bosses will grant more points initially, it’s perfectly acceptable to focus on farming the most basic boss, Hillock, to earn points and useful drops in the early stages.

This boss can be found in Act 1’s Twilight Strand. When fighting this boss, be aware that he will spawn Unstable Aberration via Leap Slam in phase 2, constantly disrupting you. Ranged classes are generally better suited to dealing with him.

To ensure your attack and defense capabilities continue to grow, you must not only obtain loot from bosses but also continuously trade with NPCs for more and better gear to replace your existing gear and upgrade its affixes.

It’s worth mentioning that if you’re interested in the event bonuses described below, it’s best to enter the event in your strongest class, as this will increase your chances of finishing at the top of the leaderboard and winning rewards!

What Are The Event Rewards?

First, if you participate in this event and your character reaches level 2 during the event, you’ll receive a Gauntlet Glove Effect, which will track your highest level achieved during the event. If you complete all event campaigns, you’ll also receive a Dawn of the Hunt Mystery Box.

As for the actual prize, a portion will be allocated for special bonuses, such as first kills of pinnacle bosses. The majority of the prize will be distributed to the top 1 scorers (12%) and the top 2 scorers (4%).

In addition, if you rank well in your class, you’ll also receive bonuses: the top 1 scorer in each class will receive 8%, and the top 2 scorer in each class will receive 4%.

Even if you’re not as skilled, you still have a chance to get prize through your luck! There will be a raffle for the event, and if your character reaches the corresponding level range, you’ll have a chance to win the following physical/in-game items!

• Reach Level 50: 5x $20 Food Delivery Gift Cards, 250x Dawn of the Hunt Mystery Box
• Reach Level 60: 1x Keychron K4 Pro Wireless Keyboard, 8x Mist Portal Effect, Divergence Portal Effect, Astral Portal Effect, Heritage Portal Effect
• Reach Level 70: 1x Logitech G502X Wireless Mouse, 8x Divergence Weapon Effect, Deepwater Weapon Effect, Winter Dragon Weapon Effect
• Reach Level 80: 1x Samsung 9100 Pro 1TB, 8x Divergence Cloak, Siren Cloak, Starfall Cloak
• Reach Level 90: 1x NVIDIA RTX 5070, 1x Winter Dragon, Nightfall, Rapture, Siren, Mercurial, Necrolord, Lightning Stygian Armor Packs
• Reach Level 95: 1x NVIDIA RTX 5080

The above are the main information and tips for Merciless Gauntlet event. The event won’t last long, so be sure to seize the opportunity to claim the rewards! Good luck!