General News

Path of Exile 3.27, Keepers of the Flame League, will be released on October 31st. The new patch brings many changes, including new endgame content and adjustments and reworks to various classes.

So, what build should you use for the new league? A comfortable leveling build can shorten your early leveling time. If you want to switch to a different build, your leveling build's farming ability will also affect your ability to switch builds. Below, we recommend some starting league builds based on PoE 3.27 patch.

1. Cyclone Gladiator

Cyclone Gladiator is a classic build that can handle maps of all difficulty levels, but it depends on PoE currency you invest.

It gets a recommendation because Cyclone skill has received a 20% buff at all levels. If you already use this build, you'll find it performs even better in 3.27. Its core mechanic uses Dancing Dervish Reaver Sword. It triggers Rampage, allowing the sword to automatically clear monsters.

Pros And Cons

Cyclone Gladiator build can defeat all Ubers when well-equipped, though it's not designed for hard bosses. Its high tankiness allows you to fight virtually unhindered from the start to T7 maps.

However, it's not unkillable and can still die in T17 maps or if you're unfamiliar with the final boss mechanics. If you're willing to invest enough PoE Divine Orbs in this build, you can even use it to handle all endgame content.

• Hundreds of Divine Orbs: It can handle everything in the game, including Uber bosses, T17 maps, Scarab of Risk, and Delirium maps. While it may occasionally die, it's still very powerful overall.
• Around 20 Divine Orbs: The most cost-effective level. It can clear Simulacrum Wave 15 and most Tier 17 maps, but it struggles on really juiced maps with very difficult affixes.
• A few Chaos Orbs: Most gear is worth only one Chaos Orb or less, but it's enough for the campaign.

2. Siege Ballista Hierophant

Siege Ballista Hierophant has been a very strong build for the past few seasons. Not only has it survived patch nerfs, but its Siege Ballista variant, Siege Ballista of Trarthus, even received a 35% damage buff. Siege Ballista Hierophant is perfect for the new League's Breach playstyle.

Siege Ballista is a Totem build, or one-button build. Its operation is simple: simply place a totem, and it automatically attacks, making it easy for even new players to figure out how to use it.

Its early game requirements are low, and all you need is a Divine Orb to get all the gear you need (by trade). Its survivability is quite good, and once you meet the required gear and skills, it boasts high dodge, spell suppression, and life regeneration, so it is not a glass cannon.

League Start Progression:

• Early Game: Use Holy Flame Totem.
• After Chapter 3: Switch to Explosive Arrow.
• Mid-Level 70s: Finally, transition to the core build Siege Ballista.

3. Reap And Exsanguinate Hierophant

Reap & Exsanguinate Hierophant is a tried-and-true build in multiple leagues, but it's relatively not very popular compared to other builds. But Reap and Exsanguinate have been continuously buffed, and the new Bloodline Ascendancy added in patch 3.27 provides stronger talent nodes, eliminating the need for a useless fourth talent point.

You can directly equip Reap at level 28, but this requires you to take Recovery Mastery (which provides 50 health regeneration per second) on the talent board to maintain the skill consumption. Or, you can use standard Templar levelings like Rolling Magma and Armageddon Brand, and then re-level later.

The two core skills of this build, Reap (Single Target) and Exsanguinate (Clear Skill), are both physical damage. Therefore, the core idea of Passive Tree is to find nodes for Life, Physical Damage Over Time, and Spell Suppression. Focus on health and damage early on, then head to the right path point to reach the Spell Suppression Cap and gain Elusive effect (via the Lethe Shade cluster).

4. Kinetic Wander Elementalist

Kinetic Wander Elementalist benefits from a host of new wand abilities (such as Wind Blast, Kinetic Rain, Wall of Force, Kinetic Fusillade) and the new wand base types Blasting Wand and Kinetic Wand.

Combined with Assassin class rework, Kinetic Wander Elementalist build has the potential to be very powerful, becoming a meta build for new leagues, but it's probably not suitable for pure new players.

It has advantages in the early game, such as smooth leveling, fast farming, good survivability, and low PoE currency required for item crafting. However, its drawbacks, such as lack of defense and damage, only become apparent in the endgame.

Also Read: Path Of Exile 3.27 Keepers of The Flame Predictions: 5 Expected Unique Items And Trarthus Gem Changes

5. Earthshatter Zerker

Earthshatter was not nerfed in PoE 3.27, and its overlapping spikes mechanic can deal significant damage.

Pros

• Easily handles early maps (Tier 5 and below) even with minimal gear.
• Large AOE range and fast clearing.
• With increased investment, damage and tankiness can be increased to extremely high levels.

Cons

• During Acts 4-6, you may feel vulnerable if gear (especially resistances and weapons) isn't updated regularly.
• It relies heavily on a high-damage Two-Handed Axe, which requires constant upgrades.
• While it's not a high-frequency build, you need to adapt to the rhythm of alternating attacks and Warcry.
• Not recommended for new Hardcore players, as the early stages require a precise balance of defense and damage.

Also, this build can be used with Slayer, Juggernaut, or Chieftain classes, depending on whether you prefer more damage or defense.

The above builds aren't necessarily optimal for the endgame, but most of them can easily clear Tier 17 maps if you're willing to invest heavily in Divine Orbs.

A month ago, a teaser trailer for Path of Exile 3.27 was released, announcing its October release date. As expected, 3.27 is scheduled to release on October 31st., and Secrets of the Atlas League will conclude on October 27th, leaving players with approximately three weeks to continue polishing their builds.

So, should you relax and enjoy the game during this time, or make a few extra bucks? What happens to your character after the league ends? How should you prepare for the new league?

How To Prepare For The New League?

PoE 3.26 lasted for almost five months, which naturally brought in a number of new players. Some of these players may not be fully aware of what the league transition represents.

Simply put, it's similar to the season transition in Diablo. When 3.26 transitions to 3.27, all characters, items, PoE currency, experience, and progress in the current challenge league will be transferred to the permanent standard league. When you create a character in a new league, it won't be able to use any gear or currency from the previous league. This means any hard work you put into 3.26 won't carry over to the new league.

If you want to prepare for 3.27, you can pay attention to the official announcements about the new league content and skill adjustments, note your desired build and the best upgrade build, and find a suitable loot filter to save you time searching through junk during gameplay. This will help you prepare early.

Your first build shouldn't be the strongest in the meta, but rather the one you most want to play. Once you successfully reach the endgame with your desired build and accumulate some PoE currency and gear, you can switch to a Meta build, which will allow you to upgrade faster.

Is 3.26 Still Worth Playing?

Secrets of the Atlas League has fewer content updates than other leagues, leading players to call it the worst season.

Judging by Steam online users and views on various streaming platforms, PoE 3.26 has fewer players than previous seasons. This may be due to the period of inactivity leading up to PoE2's release, which caused some players (including veterans who never switch leagues) to skip or join later.

However, despite the decrease in total players, player retention is very high. Even amidst severe server issues (especially on European servers), a large number of players continue to play. So, if you continue playing now, you don't have to worry about finding someone to trade with. You can sell all your PoE currency before the league ends, and you might even make a small profit.

Tier 16.5 Maps

Tier 16.5 maps are one of the best features of 3.26, primarily due to the map layout options. Tier 17 maps have closed corridor layouts, which often restrict player movement, hinder ranged and AOE builds, and make certain activities (such as Breach and Legion) a poor experience.

Tier 16.5 maps allow players to choose their favorite old map layouts, which greatly improves the gameplay experience. Furthermore, better layouts allow for more interesting builds that rely on area-of-effect effects, rather than just targeting specific Tier 17 meta builds.

While Tier 17 maps may offer higher returns per map, Tier 16.5 maps, thanks to their efficient layouts, narrow the payoff per unit time, so even if you don't challenge Tier 17 maps, you won't lose much. Furthermore, farming efficiency on Tier 16.5 maps isn't much lower than Tier 17. Even after the mid-game fix for the bug that guaranteed Tier 17 modifiers with eight affixes, Tier 16.5 maps still offer good returns. Tier 16.5 maps are expected to be carried over to 3.27.

Mercenaries League

Mercenaries are a new mechanic added in 3.26. Mercenaries can serve as powerful support. You can equip them with special equipment to grant you auras or taunt enemies. You can even have them serve as your primary damage dealer, with you supporting them.

When choosing equipment, you need to balance making your mercenaries powerful enough to enhance your own abilities with ensuring their survival. The mercenary system makes many previously unpopular Path of Exile items valuable.

However, mercenaries significantly increase the power of all builds, making 3.26 easier. If this mechanic isn't added to the core game, players in 3.27 might struggle to adapt. If it is, the disruption to game balance caused by mercenaries could be devastating.

Doryani's Prototype is a classic example of a design error. If you put this item, which grants negative lightning resistance, on a nearly indestructible mercenary, it overpowers the lightning build, disrupting the balance. Therefore, 3.27 may only retain a few mercenaries or their corresponding gems, while most mercenary-related content may be removed.

Beyond the content of 3.26, there has been no official preview or announcement regarding 3.27's content. However, it is expected to include new bosses and PoE currency. Another long-awaited feature that will probably launch in 3.27 is Path of Exile 2's current asynchronous trading system. It performed almost flawlessly in 0.3.0, and this feature promises significant improvements to the trading system, making it well worth the wait.

Currently, Path of Exile 3.26's player base isn't at its peak, and with 3.27 still about three weeks away, finding players willing to trade with you might be challenging before the new trading system launches.

However, IGGM will offer trading services from the start of the season until the end, allowing you to buy reliable PoE currency and items to complete your build.

It's been almost three months since the release of Path of Exile 3.26 (June 13, 2025 PDT). Recently, they released a soft announcement that 3.27 will arrive in October.

While they haven't yet announced a specific date, we can make some inferences based on their update schedule and habits.

Path Of Exile 3.27 Release Date

Most Likely Dates:

• October 24th
• October 31st

The official goal is to release 3.27 at the end of October, with the specific date to be announced via a livestream in a few weeks. The current Mercenaries of Trarthus League typically ends about a week before the new league exam, leaving players plenty of time to complete their current league's challenges.

PoE developers typically release updates on Fridays US time, officially announced as the end of October. Therefore, an update on October 17th is unlikely. If October 21st is considered late October, then both the 24th and 31st are possible new dates.

Given that Path of Exile 2 wasn't announced until the end of August, October 31st is the most likely date.

Path Of Exile Development Cycle

Before the release of 3.26, the developers explained their upcoming update cycle for Path of Exile 1 and 2 in an interview. PoE 1 and 2 will release new content every four months, adding new mechanics and a new PoE currency. This alternating cycle means players will be able to enjoy new content every two months on average.

This model provides players with predictability and reliability; even if a particular release isn't satisfactory, players know there will be new content to play a few months later.

However, given the late release date of Path of Exile 2, subsequent updates may be delayed until the end of the month. That means Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 will be released at the end of December, and PoE 3.28 will be released at the end of February 2026.

However, Path of Exile's development staff is clearly insufficient. Currently, only about two developers can make class balance changes without review.

These core balancers need to constantly switch focus between POE 1 and POE 2 projects. While they're balancing PoE 2, POE 1 may not receive meaningful balance updates. Furthermore, due to the holiday break, I strongly suspect both patch 0.4.0 and POE 3.28 will be delayed.

Possible Content In Patch 3.27

The league theme and new features for 3.27 have not yet been announced, but the next patch is very likely to bring Path of Exile 2's asynchronous trading system (Merchant Tab System) to Path of Exile 1.

This new trading system allows you to place your items for sale, acting like a merchant. Other players can trade with you using PoE currency even when you're offline, without both players being online. This functionality is similar to an auction house in an MMO.

This will significantly change the gameplay experience in PoE 1, as trading is much more frequent in PoE 1 than in PoE 2. Currently, trading in PoE 1 can be frustrating, especially when you find an item that perfectly matches your build, only to have it rejected. Time zone issues also make trading quite inconvenient. Merchant Tab System will effectively address these issues.

Furthermore, for players who want to succeed in the trade league economy, quickly reaching the endgame and then progressing to farm will be more important than ever.

What Content Will Be Retained In 3.27?

PoE 3.26 is a good and fun League, but it still gets a distance with a real big expansion. With each League update, not everything from the previous League is retained, as this could affect game balance and the economy.

Mercenaries of Trarthus will definitely not be retained, as these mercenaries are too powerful and would disrupt the game balance, making it too easy. However, most of the mercenary skill gems are weak, but they may be added to the core.

Other contents, such as new PoE currency, Tier 16.5 maps, new bosses and unique items, are likely to remain, as they all have a positive impact on the game.

Comparison Between POE 1 And POE 2

The current Path of Exile 1 league has been running for three months, and some players may have already shifted their focus to Path of Exile 2. Other players, lacking the energy to play two complex APRGs simultaneously, are undecided between the two.

As an unfinished game, Path of Exile 2 is improving faster and is the current focus of the developers, allowing you to experience more new content.

Path of Exile 1 currently has a faster pace in leveling and endgame, and its boss battles are less immersive and challenging. It's more suitable for newcomers and is currently the better of the two.

Path of Exile 3.27 is still a while away, but even if you're tired of patch 3.26, you won't be bored while you wait. Currently, there's Last Epoch Season 3, and the recently released Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.0, and Diablo 4 Season 10 is coming at the end of September, so you can wait in busy.

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!

As you know, crafting builds in Path of Exile series is usually centered around a class/Ascendancy class, or a single skill, because skills in the series are obtained by equipping skill gems, not determined by the selected class.

Therefore, in order to make the game more content-rich, POE will occasionally add new skill gems when releasing new leagues or patches. In POE 3.26, Wave of Conviction of Trarthus was added.

This skill is actually Trarthus gem version of the old skill Wave of Conviction - this is also a special mechanism introduced by 3.26 Mercenaries of Trarthus league.

This time we will introduce you to the mechanism and Wave of Conviction of Trarthus skill, and bring you a guide to craft related builds.

What Are Trarthus Gems?

Trarthus gems are actually replacement versions of existing skill gems, which are expressed as adding the suffix “of Trarthus” to the original skill name to change its function and balance.

In terms of overall skill effect, Trarthus skills are basically the same as default skills, but they will change the characteristics of the skills from other angles, and even change their gem tags and mechanics, which is similar to transfigured gems.

To obtain Trarthus gems, you need to duel with mercenaries in 3.26 league. After winning, in addition to the regular POE currency, you will also receive a random Trarthus gem. There are currently 12 Trarthus gems in the game:

• Sunder of Trarthus
• Chain Hook of Trarthus
• Heavy Strike of Trarthus
• Bladefall of Trarthus
• Blast Rain of Trarthus
• Dark Pact of Trarthus
• Spectral Throw of Trarthus
• Spectral Shield Throw of Trarthus
• Storm Call of Trarthus
• Spectral Helix of Trarthus
• Siege Ballista of Trarthus
• Wave of Conviction of Trarthus

What Is Wave Of Conviction Of Trarthus?

This skill is actually a physical/fire spell. It creates a ring of energy that can damage enemies twice as it spreads out from you for a while and then returns. Only one ring can be active at a time through this skill.

Unlike the original Wave of Conviction, Trarthan version has lower base damage, damage effect, and duration, but it does not cause exposure and converts 50% of physical damage to fire damage instead of directly outputting 25% fire damage and 25% lightning damage.

How To Craft Related Builds?

For Wave of Conviction of Trarthus, the key to its exclusive builds is to invest in scorch, exposure, penetration, and curse effects as much as possible to reduce enemy resistance.

Based on this, you can defeat and hire a mercenary equipped with Doryani’s Prototype and The Admiral Varnished Coat, or Fallen Reverend mercenary is also a good choice, because he can give you a free aura and cover enemies with ash.

In terms of class selection, it is recommended that you match Witch’s Ascendancy class Elementalist for the entire build, because this class can give you powerful damage, defense, and recovery capabilities at the same time through the reinforced puppet army.

Unlike the original version, since Wave of Conviction of Trarthus converts 50% of the damage to fire damage, you should utilize the appropriate items and passive skills to convert it to 100%, and trigger a linked spell every 0.3 seconds during the channeling skill.

This way, by reducing the duration of your energy wave, not only can your damage effectively kill the enemy, but it will also bring you a large amount of extra health and energy shield.

It should be noted that although this build has good damage effects against single and group enemies, it is not recommended to use it in the early stages of the league because it requires you to unlock the appropriate mercenaries and utilize skills proficiently.

What Items Are Suitable For This Build?

Compared with general POE 3.26 builds, the build dominated by Wave of Conviction of Trarthus does not require much in terms of gear, jewels, or flasks, and only a part of the primary gear can improve the overall effect.

For example, the already mentioned Doryani’s Prototype and The Admiral Varnished Coat can counteract the enemy’s elemental resistance, and Replica Dragonfang’s Flight amulet and The Light of Meaning jewel can greatly increase the damage you deal.

In addition, when you choose a defensive gem in Sciona area, The Light of Meaning jewel increases the fire damage by more than 200%, making the fire damage output of Wave of Conviction of Trarthus more effective after conversion.

Another good jewel is Watcher’s Eye, which is actually a common supplementary jewel for most builds using multiple auras. For the builds introduced in this article, Zealatry, Grace, and Clarity aura modifiers can increase your damage and defense.

In addition, since you chose Ascendancy class Elementalist, it is recommended that you activate its passive skill Bringer of Ruin, which can enhance the effect of Herald buffs you receive and increase the mana reservation efficiency of Herald skills.

The above is Wave of Conviction of Trarthus skills introduced to you this time, as well as its main build crafting core ideas and recommended items. If you think this plan is good, please try crafting in 3.26 league!

It has to be said that the complexity of various gameplays and mechanisms in Path of Exile should be considered top 3 among all ARPGs, which is why only real hardcore players will be fascinated by it.

If you want to gradually familiarize yourself with the game as a POE novice, it is completely possible. After all, everyone has come from the novice stage, but the premise is that you must always understand the new content you encounter through the guide.

Since it was a league update that was delayed for more than half a year, 3.26 Mercenaries of Trarthus league attracted a lot of attention after it was launched, so you may have started playing this game at that time.

Based on this, this time we will introduce you to the farming guide of Delve, which is easily overlooked in all the first game play.

What Is Delve?

Delve first appeared in the game through Path of Exile: Delve in 2018. Its operation is essentially similar to other POE dungeons, but the difference is that it is almost infinite-as long as you can do it, you can go deeper.

Each Delve represents a nearly infinite Azurite Mine dungeon, where you follow a Voltaxic Sulphite-powered Crawler from mine to mine and reach the next checkpoint to complete the exploration. Entering a Delve requires your POE 3.26 character to be at least level 14.

How Does Delve Work?

Azurite Mine represented by Delve has countless nodes, each of which has 1 to 4 paths connected to it, leading to other nearby nodes. Each node has a checkpoint, and after clearing the checkpoint through combat, you can get rewards and teleport here freely.

To clear more nodes and earn rarer POE currency, each Delve exploration requires you to start from the checkpoint of a cleared node and continue to go deeper along an adjacent path, defeating or avoiding enemies along the way.

When you reach the next uncleared node, you will unlock an encounter at the checkpoint here. If you win, you will get rewards and clear the node. As you explore the mine, the difficulty and rewards will increase.

Best Delve Farming Guides

Although the dungeon is theoretically endless, the optimal exploration depth should be between 250 and 300 within the character’s ability to limit. As long as your strength and gear are good, this depth is enough for you to earn the required POE Divine Orbs.

Increase Movement And Combat Speed

If you don’t have to quit midway due to unexpected death, you can theoretically clear dozens or even hundreds of nodes in Delve at a time. If your movement and combat speed are fast enough, it will be more efficient.

Therefore, before entering Azurite Mine dungeon, you need to craft builds with fast speed as the core, and equip gear with speed bonus as much as possible.

In addition, during the exploration process, aim to clear the main nodes, don’t waste time killing extra enemies, or trying to find hidden nodes - they are far less valuable than the main nodes.

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Focus On Areas With Biomes

Different areas in Azurite Mine may have their own biomes, and different biomes have different appearances, monsters, encounters, and different fossil drops.

Sometimes you may also encounter a city biome and encounter a special boss. Clearing the node of this biome brings better loot, but the enemies and bosses are also more difficult.

• Mines: Metallic Fossil, Serrated Fossil, Pristine Fossil, Aetheric Fossil.
• Fungal Caverns: Dense Fossil, Aberrant Fossil, Opulent Fossil, Corroded Fossil, Gilded Fossil.
• Petrified Forest: Bound Fossil, Jagged Fossil, Corroded Fossil, Sanctified Fossil.
• Abyssal Depths: Aberrant Fossil, Bound Fossil, Gilded Fossil, Lucent Fossil.
• Frozen Hollow: Frigid Fossil, Serrated Fossil, Prismatic Fossil, Sanctified Fossil, Shuddering Fossil.
• Magma Fissure: Scorched Fossil, Prismatic Fossil, Pristine Fossil, Deft Fossil, Fundamental Fossil.
• Sulfur Vents: Metallic Fossil, Opulent Fossil, Aetheric Fossil, Fundamental Fossil.
• Vaal Outpost: Generates special boss Ahuatotli, the Blind.
• Abyssal City: Generates special boss Kurgal, the Blackblooded.
• Primeval Ruins: Generates special boss Aul, the Crystal King.

Utilize Available Consumable Items

Due to the darkness in the dungeon, you can only move forward through the light source brought by Crawler to see the surrounding nodes and possible enemies or items.

But the tricky thing is that there is a monster called Stalkers in Delves that will temporarily destroy your Crawler light source, so it is necessary to bring flares when entering the dungeon.

Flares, as a consumable item, can create a temporary lighting area for you, but it cannot specify a target, and you can only bring up to three at a time. In addition to Delves, flares can actually be used in any mine in POE 3.26.

Usually when you explore Delves, if you encounter flare caches, you can find this item inside, or you can consume Azurite at Voltaxic Generator to exchange flares.

Another item worth getting is dynamite, which blows up the broken walls around you and deals a certain amount of damage to enemies in the blast radius. You can equip up to 2 at a time, and the way to get them is the same as flares (corresponding to dynamite caches).

What Is Azurite?

In addition to getting currency or item rewards by clearing major nodes and killing bosses, you can also farm Azurite in the following Azurite nodes:

• Azurite Cavity
• Azurite Vault
• Azurite Fissure

In addition, some Delve paths will have smaller Azurite veins, and opening prehistoric chests in Primeval Ruins may also bring you a lot of Azurite.

As we have already introduced, Azurite can be used to exchange the required flares or dynamites at Voltaxic Generator, reducing obstacles during exploration.

The above is the basic information you need to know about farming Delves in POE 3.26, as well as a reliable farming strategy. I hope it will help you with your league experience!

Although craft builds are an important and complex task in any ARPG, the complexity of crafting builds in Path of Exile series is particularly obvious, perhaps because there are many classes and skills in the game.

POE 3.26, which was launched on June 13, continues the complex style of the game. It combines the essence of the previous leagues and introduces more new content for you to experience, which makes craft builds more difficult.

Based on this, this time we will take Marauders Ascendancy class Juggernaut as the basis to introduce you to Tornado Shot Shine Build that is suitable for this class to utilize, based on different items.

The Core Gear That Make This Build Work

The first thing you need to know is that as an Ascendancy class, Juggernaut’s main advantage lies in its reliable tank attributes, and its armor, life recovery, damage reduction, deceleration and stun defense are all very good.

Therefore, the build suitable for Juggernaut is usually based on adding various item effects to it, which requires you to constantly farm more different types of POE currency during crafting, so that you can make builds more powerful by constantly optimizing these items.

For Tornado Shot Shine, its core gear is Spinehail vile arrow quiver and Coiling Whisper amethyst ring, both of which are new items brought by 3.26 and can only be dropped after defeating specific bosses:

• Spinehail: Catarina, Master of Undeath
• Coiling Whisper: Incarnation of Fear

Spinehail Vile Arrow Quiver

Spinehail’s attack will sacrifice a minion to fire three additional arrows at the enemy. Although this sounds a bit complicated, in fact you just need to make sure that Herald of Purity skill is running to obtain a steady stream of minions.

If you want to make the arrows from Spinehail more effective, you can pair it with Widowhail bow to get a 10-arrow multiplier at once, increasing the damage output of the build.

Coiling Whisper Amethyst Ring

The effect of this ring is that when your hex lasts for 90% on an enemy, for every 1 point of enemy strength you increase, you will devour 1 soul, which means you will gain Soul Eater stacks equal to the enemy’s strength. And this effect is not affected by Hexproof.

If you can control the duration short enough, Manaforged Arrows support means that it can help you do this job. And when you attack, if you have Hextouch support, you will continue to curse the enemy.

Based on the above effects, as long as the enemy survives long enough, you can immediately obtain all the souls of the enemy, and the higher the difficulty of the battle, the easier it is to work.

In addition, I believe you have noticed that specific skills or support gems also play an important role in the process of utilizing the above gear. But even without them, you can ensure that the build works properly by adding the following items.

Other Reliable Gear

In addition to the two core gear and Widowhail bow that can be paired with Spinehail - their main function is to increase your damage output, there are other gear in the game that can increase your defense or health that are worth adding.

The Iron Fortress

As a unique crusader plate, the function of this item is to change the damage bonus of strength to increase your melee physical damage by 3% for every 10 points of strength you gain. If it is used with Crown of Eyes, the effect will be even better.

Eyes Of The Greatwolf

This item has two random talisman implicit modifiers. Although the two benefits it brings to you in the end are random, it is very likely to bring you a turning point at the critical moment of the battle.

Related: What New Challenges Does Path Of Exile 3.26 Bound By Destiny Modifier Bring?

Appropriate Flasks

As an important type of benefit item in Path of Exile, properly matched flasks can improve different aspects of the build in unexpected ways. Here are the flasks for Tornado Shot Shine Build:

• Progenesis: When you are hit while it is active, 25% of the health loss from the damage taken will occur over 4 seconds. Drops from Uber Maven.
• Bismuth Flask: It is actually a utility flask base type, equipped on your belt to replenish your energy at any time. It will drop anywhere.
• Quicksilver Flask: As a base type, it works and drops in the same way as Bismuth Flask.
• Jade Flask: Same as above.

The Most Important Gem

As you know, gems in POE are actually available skills (skill gems and support gems), and as the name suggests, the most important skill for this build is Tornado skill.

This skill can create a tornado that continuously damages nearby enemies. While it moves forward, your projectiles can collide with it to continue damaging enemies.

After that, the tornado will chase the enemy for a second period, and reflect a portion of your damage in addition to the existing damage output.

If you are worried about what build to utilize in POE 3.26, this guide about Tornado Shot Shine Build should be able to help you. Thank you for reading.

It has been a month since the official release of Path Of Exile 3.26: Secrets Of The Atlas. How do you think this expansion performs, which has made everyone wait for nearly a year? Is it really worth your expectations?

To be honest, the response to POE 3.26 expansion is generally not ideal. Although this update brings a lot of new content and Atlas expansion after nearly 3 years, most players have a bad gaming experience because of update delays and performance issues.

More importantly, the developers seem to always think that Path Of Exile 2 takes precedence over the original game, which can be seen from the repeated postponements of the 3.26 update. It can even be said that the sequel is so successful now because the previous game was suspended for too long, which made most players turn to POE 2.

Current Comparison Of POE 3.26 And 2

According to the current data from Steam, the number of online players in POE 3.26 is about 32,000-33,000, with an average of about 67,000 online players in a month and a peak of about 68,000. In contrast, the number of online players in POE 2 is about 53,000-54,000, with an average of about 11,700 online players in a month and a daily peak of about 10,000 online players.

But from a broader perspective of active players, POE 3.26 has about 349,000 daily active players and a total of about 53 million registered players, while the sequel has about 437,000 daily active players and a total of about 31.7 million registered players.

Therefore, we can clearly see that since the release of Secrets Of The Atlas, users have been more active in PoE 1, but PoE 2 may have a wider user base on the overall platform. However, compared with its predecessor, PoE 2’s real-time user activity is still much lower.

Because basically since the early access release of PoE 2 last December, the number of daily online players has been shrinking, but it has gradually stabilized between 10,000 and 15,000. This means that although the release of the sequel was discovered by more players because of the popularity of the original, it still retains some players with its own gameplay and style.

What Is The Difference?

However, with the release of Path Of Exile 3.26 league, the difference between the two games has become increasingly significant, and basically most players have a clear preference for them.

Although PoE 3.26 and PoE 2 are closely related, whether because of the series of games or because the development team itself may be temporarily formed and the personnel overlap, if you actually experience them, you will find that they are completely different.

Path of Exile 3.26 is more suitable for some veteran action role-playing game players who are familiar with complex systems. Especially for players who are keen on custom builds and like to spend a lot of time trying out unique skills or builds that are not well known, you will find unique fun here.

As we all know, POE 1 has always been famous for its complex currency economy system, passive skill tree and huge Atlas system, and the newly added mercenary mechanism and memory loops in 3.26 have deepened this feature.

Therefore, if you like new mercenary partners, deeper production mechanisms and flexible league economic systems, and are happy to earn countless POE currency with your own strategies in a short time, then Secrets Of The Atlas will provide you with a rich and satisfying gaming experience.

However, if you like streamlined and easy-to-use gameplay, smooth combat experience and fascinating storyline, then believe me, the 3.26 expansion may only bring you pain, instead POE 2 may be a better choice for you.

Although POE 2 is still in the early access stage, the current updates can show that the developers want to continuously improve the Path Of Exile series universe through it. Because this sequel has not only updated the combat and storyline, but also the game performance and visual effects to make it more in line with the needs of players at all stages.

It’s clear that Path Of Exile 2 is aimed at beginners of the series, who often felt overwhelmed by the original, but prefer to explore the story, visuals, and real-time gameplay. The sequel offers a smooth combat experience and a deep but easy-to-understand progression system, allowing them to experience a challenging campaign without being bound by complex mechanics and outdated tutorials.

As a result, Secrets Of The Atlas now seems to be more focused on veteran players and continues to be designed for players who have supported it for the past decade, while PoE 2 attracts new groups of players, of course, there is also a certain degree of crossover.

Why Did Many Players Leave PoE 3.26?

To be honest, before the release of the 3.26 expansion, most veteran players had high expectations for it because the previous Settlers of Kalguur league was so popular. As expected, at the beginning, when POE 3.26 was released, the peak number of online players surpassed Settlers of Kalguur, indicating that this classic game still has a very active player community, but the subsequent situation is not optimistic.

Due to a large number of server problems, delays and frequent DDoS attacks, the growth of players has been greatly hindered. In addition, although a lot of new content has been added in the 3.26 update, it is still centered around the typical farming equipment game style, and the playability has not met the expectations of players, which has caused a large number of players to leave.

Although the developers are trying to solve the problem of server instability and are committed to improving the overall DDoS protection of the server, this has caused some legitimate traffic to be blocked, resulting in some players being unable to play the game. In addition, various account thefts and visual flickering issues have a negative impact on the user interface for some players.

The frequent occurrence of these problems has led to constant complaints in the player community. Many people said that they might restart the game later, but definitely not now!

In fact, since the release of POE 2, the developers have been slowing down the update speed of the original game. However, the team is still continuing to support the old game, and hopefully these issues will be resolved soon.

Final Thoughts

In general, Path of Exile 3.26 has been hit hard by frequent connection issues after a major update. However, PoE 1 has been around for a long time, and the previous Settlers of Kalguur league never had such server crashes.

And I have never seen any development team not communicate with players during a serious DDoS attack, or even respond so casually to a server problem that has lasted for nearly a month, which may be the real reason why the feedback on the 3.26 update is getting worse and worse.

On the other hand, although PoE 2 did not perform well, this highly anticipated sequel is still in the early access stage, and the overall gaming experience is still smooth. Therefore, all reviews are still positive for players.

Therefore, as far as the current situation is concerned, Path of Exile 3.26 is already in a situation where it is obviously lagging behind the sequel. This may be because the updated content did not meet the expectations of players, or it may be the negative impact caused by many problems, but in the final analysis, the developer ignored the feelings of a large number of old players because of the release of the sequel.

If the developer does not want to destroy the foundation of Path of Exile series of games, it is best to rebalance the parallel development of the two games, otherwise it will only lose everything.

In POE 3.26, Rituals are still a very profitable endgame strategy, and players can still interact with Ritual Altars in the map and defeat monsters to get Tribute. So here, we will share how to run Rituals on T17 maps to get more benefits. Let’s take a look!

Skill Tree Setup

In this guide, we run Ritual in 30 T17 maps. In the passive skill tree, we need to unlock almost all Ritual nodes, including some Scarab nodes, as well as nodes that increase modifier effects on the map.

In addition to this, we also use two Ritual Scarab of Selectiveness. This Scarab allows us to reroll a total of five Rituals, of which the first four are free. Then, we get two Ritual Scarab of Abundance, so that we can get more items in the Ritual.

Finally, we used Blood-filled Vessel to get better rewards, more monsters, and more Tributes.

Ideally, we can also add special affixes to Blood-filled Vessel to get more Tributes, but this is not mandatory.

How To Run?

Defering Item

Please note that during Ritual, once any valuable item appears, we need to defer the item before claiming it.

This ensures the safety of the item and avoids losing it. Especially if the item has a red border, we must defer it, otherwise it will be almost difficult to see it again in the later stage.

Defering Item feature was introduced as part of the mechanism in the Ritual league. This feature allows you to immediately mark rare items that are currently unavailable for Tribute and make them reappear later. However, in order to defer the item, the player must pay 15% of the original price of the item.

So, we can defer a bunch of valuable items from Tier 17 maps, and then to claim them, we can use Scarab of Wisps and Immutable Dogma Keystones on Tier 16 maps, which will give us more Tributes.

Nameless Ritual

But the problem with using Immutable Dogma is that if you get a Nameless Ritual with Keystone active, you won’t be able to reroll Ritual and lose some nice gains.

Nameless Ritual is a special Ritual that has a chance to drop An Audience With The King on each reroll, which allows you to enter Crux of Nothingness and encounter The King in the Mists. Currently, it costs a little more than a POE Divine Orb.

On top of that, you can also get Ritual bases and corpses in these Nameless Rituals, which is usually where you make the big money.

Tribute Farming

For each map, it really depends on your situation. If you have unique monsters in both your Ritual and Blood-filled Vessel, you can get more Tributes.

I think 6000 Tributes should be enough to reroll and defer almost all quests, so just make sure you have at least 2500 Tributes left when you reroll for the last time. As long as you have all Ritual passives in Atlas passive tree, you can defer any quest with this much Tribute.

Investment & Profit

Now, we will talk about total investment and profit.

Regarding Ritual, I would say that your profit will vary greatly depending on the random number generator (RNG). Because Ritual mechanism is usually very unstable, but I think on Tier 17 map, as long as we invest moderately, we can guarantee a good profit, and have a chance to complete some important Ritual, or Nameless Ritual.

During this run, our total investment was 14 Divine Orbs. This number is for when I try to take everything into account, including Scarabs, Vessels, Maps, Chisels, T16 maps, and some Chaos Orbs for re-rolling T17 maps.

After all maps are done, we get a profit of 54.3 Divines. It is important to note that we only count items obtained from Ritual window, and do not consider items dropped from monsters, Uber Boss fragments, etc.

Of course, this does not mean that if you complete 30 T17 Ritual maps exactly as shown here, you will get the same results. As I said, the success or failure of Ritual depends on luck.

To be fair, I found two Nameless Rituals on 30 maps, which is very lucky, because each one gave us a profit of about 10 POE Divine Orbs. So, if you don’t want to include these, then subtract 20 Divines from the final profit.

Run Time

If you want to know how long this took, it really depends on how fast you finish T17 maps and how fast you map in Ritual maps. For reference, we averaged about 7 to 8 minutes to complete each T17 map, and about 1 to 2 minutes for each T16 map.

In T17 map, we chose Fortress Map and Sanctuary Map to layout. In T16 map, I chose to run City Square Map because we can get three Ritual drops from unique enemies in the boss battle here, and this layout is very suitable for Ritual.

Finally, I must emphasize that during Ritual run, if not necessary, please skip all items worth less than 10 Chaos Orbs, because it will actually just waste your time.

There are more profitable things waiting for you to explore on the map, some Omens, Fossils, Resonators, Gems, Maps, Unique Maps, Divination Cards are all valuable.

In addition, in POE 3.26 league, Archdemon Crown is also quite valuable. Currently, they are targeting 0.9 Divines, which is basically one Divine. Then there are Fractured bases, Synthesised bases, and generally rare items with good modifiers, which can bring you a good profit.

In short, after running 30 T17 Ritual maps, we can get at least close to 50 Divines, which may not be exactly what you expect, but it is indeed an easy and profitable way to make money.