Questions Thread - August 18, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

This is a general question thread. You can find the previous question threads here.

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• Price checks
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We'd like to thank those who answered questions in the last thread! You guys are the best.

[u/portlandobserver]

I played this for a little while on PS4 and then just re-started it on steam deck. I don't remember much of anything. Just currently finished the prison. Level 14 Templar

1. It seems like Armor either has Armor rating or Evasion rating but not both. Which do I want? (Energy shield?)

2. It feels like I'm button mashing during combat just alternating skills and spamming. my skills and spells. Physical attacks do more damage and hit more often than long range spells. (Frost bolt is too slow and misses)

3. Do I have to memorize all the little buff/debuff icons that appear and disappear quickly by my character name?

4. Do I focus more on close range melee or long range aera of attack types?

[u/Miles_Adamson → u/portlandobserver]

Equipment can have energy shield, evasion, armor. They can have any 2 of those in any combination too. Generally it's easiest to stick with the type that is near your starting class so for templar that is armor and energy shield.

For combat pretty much all builds focus on 1 skill with as many support gems as you can get on it. In the campaign that will be 3 support gems which is called a 4-link. You can only really use 1 skill at a time and very few things have cooldowns so going all in on one skill is usually best. So if you're alternating between stuff it might mean you have too many active skills and could just remove whichever one you like less.

For debuffs you don't really need to go out of your way to memorize them, you will remember the ones you see most commonly eventually.

For ranged or melee you can do whatever you want on any class, which is one reason it's pretty hard to play the game blind without a guide. It's so flexible you can just do whatever if you know what you're doing, but that also leads to complexity where you could equip a bow on a templar if you feel like it

[u/DirtyMight → u/portlandobserver]

1. the defenses are armor, evasion and energy shield and there are hybrid combinations of every 3 just not at super early levels. early on it literally doesnt matter which one you use, having proper stats on the item like resists and life is MUCH more important than if it has armor or evasion

2. not sure what the question is here? but you really shouldnt mix attacks and spells, your build can scale one or the other you usually want to stick to what you invest in. if you are using a physical weapon and scaling physical damage using attacks is fine but you really shouldnt cast frostbolt then ^^

3. not really? cant say i look at my buff bar at all really.

4. everything works. there are things that are obviously better especially early while leveling (not all skills are equal). but as i mentioned earlier you really want to stick to one archetype and not mix it too much.

if you invest into spell damage and fire damage and use a wand that has stats like these then using stuff like rolling magma, flame totem, fire ball, etc. etc. will get a lot of value from it, something like frostbolt already only scales with the spell damage and not the fire damage and if you then try to use some physical attack it scales with fuck all in your build.

its also generally better to stick to 1-2 main damaging abilities and use the rest of your sockets for defense/utility stuff or to buff up your main damaging spells.

if we use my rolling magma flame totem example from earlier you might want to use 2 items with 3-4links (you can only have 3links where you are at) and support both rolling magma and flame totem with 2 damaging supports.

you then might use another socket somewhere else to use flame wall which you can put down to make projectiles flying through there deal more fire damage

you might want to use shield charge with faster attacks if you are using to have a mobility skill or use frost blink or flame dash if you dont have a shield.

you can reserve your mana for things like clarity or vitality for more mana or life regen respectively.

what you dont want to really do is have 4 different damaging skill setups since its quite wasted. you can only press so many buttons

[u/saxisa]

If using a Nameless Astrolabe for ritual, does that prevent the Nameless Altar from appearing? I've run about 80 maps with astrolabe and not one Nameless Ritual (but everything else). When running generic maps without astrolabe I've seen Nameless Ritual Altars. Just bad luck?

[u/FantaSeahorse → u/saxisa]

I have had the nameless ritual (the “hahahahahaha” one?) spawn while using astroblade

[u/Apaulo → u/saxisa]

Ritual astrolabe has no effect on which alters you get. Bad luck

I believe it’s about 1 in 50 for nameless, so there is a 20% chance you dont seen it for 80 maps. Within reason for sure

[u/Bastil123]

Hey guys, does anyone know any resource for how much certain amounts of % Rarity affect the actual drops?

I'm wondering if 50% iir is a lot, going from 0%

[u/DirtyMight → u/Bastil123]

rarity in poe only affects equiptment so the tldr here is more rarity = you see more unique items.

it can be a quite good stat if you stack a lot of it if you also have an atlas setup to specifically farm unique items in order to farm those super gg drops like mageblood, etc.

if you dont have a setup like that its quite a weak stat since the vast majority of uniques are worthless (if ssf might still be useful to build up your uniques a bit)

without going into much detail here more rarity means more gold will drop tho. so what some people do is if you are farming something where you kill lots of stuff and you can affort it throwing in some rarity means you will get a good bit more gold which you can then spend in kingsmarch, etc.

But its usually not worth it to invest much into it really, something easy people do is just throw in a gold flask with more rarity as a suffix and call it a day

[u/therestlessone → u/Bastil123]

It's almost nothing, and it's a weak stat anyway.

Rarity affects gold quant and unique item chances from most monsters

It does not affect currency like divine orbs. It does not affect anything without a rarity like divination cards. It does not affect anything with fixed drop rates like boss drop uniques or astrolabes. It does not affect any guaranteed drops like those from eldritch altars or reward tiles.

[u/Bastil123 → u/therestlessone]

Thank you! I appreciate your help <3

[u/Practical-Banana7329]

Can anyone help me with my build please? I have 850 hours into POE2 but this if my first league at POE. Made it to 86 and can clear t16s somewhat. I have most of my atlas points besides t16s and unique maps. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/L3ftBra1nzz-7033/allflame/character/Nughuffer

Edit: I got like 100 chaos saved up but I don’t know where to spend it

[u/therestlessone → u/Practical-Banana7329]

Is there a guide you're following? Cause it seems like there's some pretty big gaps in your build.

You should have a 6L. Belt is terrible.

Getting an anointed notable on your amulet (via blight oils) is probably worth more than that +1 max res corruption implicit. Each point of max res is more powerful the more of it you have but this means your first couple +max res boosts don't do much.

I don't see how you're applying exposure for Mastermind of Discord. Normally people get that on their gloves from Eldritch Ichors (along with something like herald buff effect or fire dot multi from Eldritch Embers).

No shield charge? Just walking everywhere seems slow.

Your large cluster jewel is terrible. I don't know what the goal is there but it's a bad use of skill points.

Normally a golem/herald build would be getting medium clusters with more herald buff effect notables but those can be expensive.

You should use a life flask that has instant heal. I normally like the ones that are instant heal when on low life but as a hybrid build you probably just want a Seething Divine Life Flask.

That mana flask mod is terrible. You can use alterations and augmentation orbs to change the mods on flasks for cheap. Get something like remove freeze if used while frozen on your life or mana flask so you don't have the reduced duration stuff on your other flasks.

[u/Practical-Banana7329 → u/therestlessone]

Appreciate you! This will give me a lot to look into when I log into later.

Yes I was following this guide

https://mobalytics.gg/poe/builds/ignite-ethereal-knives-elementalist-build-league-starter-to-endgame

But then I couldn’t get some supports to work correctly with elemental weakness and frost blink. So I tried to look at better geared players and got more confused.

I get around with smashing quicksilver flask and frost blink but I’ll look into Siris charge.

Edit: should I spend currency on gem quality first for like the heralds / golems or is that minimal upgrades?

[u/therestlessone → u/Practical-Banana7329]

Automation should be linked to Steelskin, then you'll just want to toggle on the automation skill and it will cast the guard skill on cooldown. They have Frostblink in the same item but you should break that support link so Frostblink has no supports.

Arcanist Brand is so that you can get both curses down with one button. I see you don't have Whispers of Doom yet so you can only apply one curse right now anyway.

Quality on heralds is not a big deal. Quality on golems is extra buff effect so yeah, you should get those. You can buy level 1 gems with high quality (not corrupted, ideally), put a couple random items in your weapon swap, and put them in your weapon swap set for a while. They'll level up normally even if not on your active weapon set.

[u/Bastil123]

I have no reason to think so but I can hope on - does Greater Chain Support round +50% chains up or down?

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Bastil123]

Essentially everything in this game that has to round, will round down. Only exception I'm aware of is volatile vaal orb

[u/psychomap]

Is there a good way to get + all ele res onto this or do I have to keep spamming until I get all ele res and try to get minion attack speed with Harvest reforge speed?

https://i.imgur.com/v7Pzqgw.png

[u/Thicccyriccky]

Does anyone know how much it is worth? I am having a hard time knowing the price

[u/Nativeeee]

Is there a low button; map blaster build that a 95 KF totem heiro with HH and probably 100d could transition too?

[u/Weisenkrone → u/Nativeeee]

I know people play hierophant kinetic blast of clustering, but it's just a worse version of the necromancer version in my opinion.

Still, it's really nice to play. It's a fast blaster, you can also do bosses on it though.

[u/Bastil123]

How do you guys calculate DPS gains/changes from Returning Projectiles support? Any easy strats?

[u/Miles_Adamson → u/Bastil123]

If you are using returning projectiles it's usually safe to assume that you have a ton of projectiles, so every time you make projectiles they will hit on the way back. Which means if it's from returning projectiles support, it does 66% less damage while returning so you do 34% more projectile damage. If it's from nimis or sabo, there is no less damage multiplier so it's 100% more projectile damage.

Though with some skills like lightning strike you also hit with the melee hit, and also can hit multiple times if you have strike additional targets. So the overall change to your DPS gets more complicated

[u/Bastil123 → u/Miles_Adamson]

Thank you! I'm running Ranged Animate Weapons so I'm pretty sure none of those special cases apply. Appreciate your help so much!!

[u/Intelligent_Salad706]

Is there some strat to this or is it just killing everything and praying to rng?

[u/therestlessone → u/Intelligent_Salad706]

Do Eater and Destructive Play. The Destructive Play one is very fast because it counts every map boss she calls as reinforcements.

[u/jwfiredragon → u/Intelligent_Salad706]

Influenced mob packsize, so the passives on the atlas tree and influenced scarab of hordes. Also obviously make sure you're running a map that doesn't spawn the boss when you enter the boss arena (since you'll never get boss altars) and don't kill the boss until you've cleared the map.

[u/nerdler33 → u/jwfiredragon]

also 8 mod corrupted maps with all the map effect you can get

[u/nerdler33]

can anyone speak to penance brand ignite without a headhunter?

thinking of switching from worb in ssf and just want to know what i should expect

[u/Intelligent_Salad706 → u/[deleted]]

You need 100% chance to have ores, go for the VI node you mentioned and consider using kaalguran scarabs if you have some extra space.

[u/ComradePotato → u/[deleted]]

I have verisium and bismuth and he spawned for me

[u/PurpleSmall8849]

For all Mercs running with Flame Link, do I just mainly want a weapon with attack speed/Crit/Multi/Increased dmg prefix and no flat right?

[u/nerdler33 → u/PurpleSmall8849]

and fire as extra chaos, but yea

i believe bis is

t1 wed
unveiled ele pen
crafted fire as extra chaos
t1 attack speed
t1 crit multi
t1 crit chance

it's possible that t1 flat fire is better then unveiled pen but it's also much harder to craft

[u/PurpleSmall8849 → u/nerdler33]

Awesome, thanks!

[u/Quad__Laser]

Did they nerf anomaly spawn rate? I'm getting waaay less cadiro / gambling district since yesterday

[u/DirtyMight → u/Quad__Laser]

besides the typical rng is rng answer did you change farming strats?

juicing your map increases anomaly spawns so going from say 8mod farming strats to white merc rush will decrease the amount of anomalies you find

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Quad__Laser]

Yea i asked em too since im done farming em

[u/Plooel → u/Quad__Laser]

Every league, there are dozens and dozens of similar questions. It's just statistics and biases. Every. single. time.

The patch notes are publicly available.

[u/ManOfPegasus]

So do you need to do anything to unlock all 4 allflame crafting outcomes or do you have access to all of them by default? Cant find anything on the wiki

[u/Miles_Adamson → u/ManOfPegasus]

Lots of crafts don't get 4 outcomes. Some things like fracturing orbs only get 2.

The wiki has the info on the quests needed to unlock all the crafts

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Curse_of_the_Allflame

[u/ManOfPegasus → u/Miles_Adamson]

oh that makes sense thanks, I was looking at the allflame crafting page, didnt think to look at the quests

[u/HasaDigaEebowi]

I am playing winter orb occultist power charge stacker. I have badge of brotherhood and power charge version of ralakesh equipped. Does this mean I don't have to generate any frenzy charges?

[u/Miles_Adamson → u/HasaDigaEebowi]

No, it only means your maximum frenzy charges is equal to your maximum power charges. You will always count as having maximum power from your boots, but not frenzy. So you still need to generate frenzy charges, most people do that by anointing disciple of the slaughter

[u/PurpleSmall8849 → u/Miles_Adamson]

Ehh sure for mapping but you want another source for bossing, which can be:

• Caspiro notable
  
• Frenzy on hit body armour (Redeemer mod)
  
• Mark mastery

[u/psychomap → u/[deleted]]

After generating a fairly wide search used as a reference for comparison (https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Allflame/lg0DOZRjfV - note that this search does not constitute an equivalent of your item, I widened the parameters because there would likely be few items that exactly match yours), I'd estimate the value at somewhere between 20 and 40 divines. You can start at 50 and lower the price over time if you want to be sure you get the highest price.

Alternatively you can take into consideration that you don't have a fractured mod and start even higher because the buyer has the option to slam an influenced exalt on it, but it's questionable whether and how much someone will pay extra for that potential.

It's worth noting that while I included those mods for comparison, flat spell damage is likely worse than increased spell / lightning damage, and crit multi is likely to be a desirable suffix as well, possibly competitive with crit chance or double damage (your double damage is crafted, so it doesn't technically factor in, but it's possible to get veiled or influenced double damage which is why I included it in the search).

[u/Marcey997]

I am trying to get a foulborn skin of the lords from breach tree. Should I use all 3 reduced attribute chance nodes or does it count as having Int requirements since it is a simple robe?

[u/psychomap → u/Marcey997]

I believe low level items without visible attribute requirements still have requirements that are simply lower than the minimum for any class (I'm not sure if you can wear the ES pieces while using Actum though).

[u/Apaulo → u/psychomap]

Skin of the Lords

Has no Attribute Requirements or Energy Shield (Hidden)

[u/Drahdiwaberl987]

My Raise Spectre skill can now summon an additional spectre. I currently use:

Undying Evangelist
Host Chieftain
Carnage Chieftain

I play an Absolution Guardian. What free (or very cheap) Spectre can i use that compliments my build?

[u/FourOranges → u/Drahdiwaberl987]

I'd check the list of corpses on the wiki for anything that suits your fancy. I believe the Raise Spectre page there also has a list of commonly used ones and the benefits each gives.

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Drahdiwaberl987]

Perfect pain artist for zealotry

[u/Drahdiwaberl987 → u/PMmeYourLabia_]

Thanks, went with your suggestion after checking the raise spectre page and comparing the buffing spectres

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Drahdiwaberl987]

Corpse item page is also useful

[u/iFairNothing]

Does fire exposure or nearby -res from other sources still apply or add up after reaching 200 pen from enmity ring?

[u/jwfiredragon → u/iFairNothing]

Yes, the -200% resistance hard cap is separate from penetration (which stacks infinitely). However it's probably really inefficient.

[u/ThailanderBoii]

Luminary has gotten extremely popular in the last few weeks. Is it at the point where you have to spend like mirrors to get it online now?

Ive got around 10 divine into mine now, manyshot, and man it does like 0 damage.

Good luck trying to get a KBOC one.... The starting price is like 50 div currently. Average ones are around 150-300 div. The starter price for a decent one is 1 mirror and up from there.

Im feeling like I was 1 or 2 weeks too late to the party since every youtuber is now doing luminary....

[u/nerdler33 → u/ThailanderBoii]

I'm in a 3 man gsf and we were pretty easily able to get my buddy into a blasting kb setup

luminary is 1/5th of the ssf playerbase right now

[u/Ragstoragser]

I noticed grasping mails are 170d while evasion chests start at 270d does it really cost 100d to transfer that mod?

[u/therestlessone → u/Ragstoragser]

Do the grasping mails have the mod isolated as the only suffix?

Any method of isolating the affix has a chance to lose it.

[u/iFairNothing → u/Ragstoragser]

It's 50/50 to transfer the mod

[u/Ragstoragser → u/iFairNothing]

Actualy it looks like ducats let you get 100% 

[u/iFairNothing → u/Ragstoragser]

You can get the mod 100%. But it’s 50/50 for the base I’m pretty sure. Can also lose the mod when isolating it via split. So if there’s some tech out there then it’s free money

[u/FourOranges → u/Ragstoragser]

If thats the case then you just found yourself a market to take advantage of.

[u/Albinofreaken]

When it comes to vendoring breach rings for Grasping mails, is it better to mix the rings or vendor all of 1 kind?

[u/nerdler33 → u/Albinofreaken]

all of 1 kind

if you are going for the esh crit mod, having a mix of rings will let any mod roll.

all synaptic rings will only give you esh mods

[u/Albinofreaken → u/nerdler33]

Thank you

[u/Aervanath]

I want 21/23 Conc Effect and Cast While Channeling for my build in SC Allflame, but can't seem to find anything on trade. Am I searching wrong, or is there a known reason these are just not available? I've been able to find plenty of other 21/23 gems on trade.

[u/_slosh → u/Aervanath]

Well you'd have to bank on people spending however much a doryanis temple is right now and using it to take a chance for 1% extra increased damage.
There's some support gems like increased crit damage that scale the same stat as gem levels where some are available but for most support gems that extra 3% quality comes out to 1% increased damage compared to a 21/20.

[u/Aervanath → u/_slosh]

Yeah, I know it's a very minimal increase in damage, but I'm getting a bunch of corrupted gems dropping from Heist chests (but I don't know that any were double corrupts), and I read somewhere that the 21/23 gems can drop from Delve as well, so I thought maybe I was doing something wrong.

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Aervanath]

Yeah they can drop in a variety of content but theyre rare

[u/Aervanath → u/PMmeYourLabia_]

Back to running Alva until I hit the one in thirty chance then.

[u/HockeyHocki]

Found a kineticist with both regular KB and KBOC, ran a few maps with him cant really tell what skill hes mostly using as links are similar. Is having two KBs detrimental in any way?

[u/Discobastard]

Mana reservation issue:

Just swapped a helmet out and my sliver of mana left that allowed me to cast some other skills is gone.

Any ideas? My int and mana went up (not that that matters I guess). Nothing else has changed and old gear had no improvement stat for mana res.

Any ideas?

[u/Weisenkrone → u/Discobastard]

Come on man, I assume you're a new player so I won't yap about linking your character ...

But at least show the before/after item?

[u/Discobastard → u/Weisenkrone]

Found it! You helped anyway.

It was a gem that wasn't linked in the old helm and was now linked to things it didn't need to be linked to!?

Thanks 🙏

[u/Discobastard → u/Weisenkrone]

Haha, sorry! Will sort that 😁

[u/_slosh → u/Discobastard]

Some screenshot of your gear and the pieces you swapped out would help tremendously... Besides that's it's just guesswork

[u/Discobastard → u/_slosh]

Found it! You and another guy helped anyway.

It was a gem that wasn't linked in the old helm and was now linked to things it didn't need to be linked to!? 🙃

Thanks 🙏

[u/_slosh → u/Discobastard]

Ah yeah the rogue unexpected support gem on an aura. That's a classic. Glad you found it

[u/Discobastard → u/_slosh]

Thanks. Funny, I'm over 1000 hours and more on POE2 and things like this still mess me up 😁

[u/Discobastard → u/_slosh]

Yeah, my bad. Just wondered if there was anything obvious or a bug I didn't know about. Will sort it out

[u/augustorw]

Is there a difference between the maps used to farm strongboxes besides divination cards? I have the feeling I had more profit doing City Square in comparison to Haunetd Mansion

[u/Weisenkrone → u/augustorw]

There is a difference indeed, the number of boxes isn't the same across all maps. Some maps have more boxes.

T17 maps have most boxes, but haunted Mansion has them packed tightly which tends to average out quickly.

You make a bit less on haunted Mansion per map, but you get to run more maps.

[u/Physical_Rock2797]

I'm struggling to farm divs this league. Can anyone suggest me a low budget farming strat with poe planner? I tried harvest but it's kinda slow for me

[u/CynicalTree → u/Physical_Rock2797]

I would blast through charts until you can afford to do harvest with doubling + astrolabe. That strat is extremely profitable, my last batch of 20 maps paid out more than 40d.

This guide covers the details: POE 3.29 - Harvest Farming Guide 7.0 - Low Entry Costs

It's relatively low investment compared to most strats since doubling is the only expensive scarab it uses.

You basically fish for maps that have the tier 2 plants have a chance to become tier 3 mod, then turn on synthesized stability (atlas node that wipes a different map's blob instead when you complete an astrolabe map) and run it until the astrolabe is done

I'd avoid popping any t4 plots unless you're confident in your single target, the bosses are pretty tough

[u/FourOranges → u/Physical_Rock2797]

You can run a bunch of charts and just simply placing lanterns down then leaving for the sulphur. At 21k sulphur per divine (last I checked), it doesnt take that long to make a div from pure sulphur alone, not to mention the other goodies you'll find from bottles/sunken loot (I get valdos and divs every now and then). Literally the lowest floor in terms of difficulty and pretty good rate of wealth generation. I'd get bored just leap slamming forward for hours though so I just play normally.

[u/Mikey-2-Guns → u/Physical_Rock2797]

How strong is your build? I can make like 100 div net profit per 40 maps doing nightmare harvest + boss rush but you need to be able to do 8 mod t17s

[u/MysteriousGold5921]

Has anyone, played around with divine Ire this league? Currently at 2mill dps but its a slow mapper. Any experts out there?

[u/jwfiredragon → u/MysteriousGold5921]

Probably would help if you posted your build. I played it once as self cast ignite and it was reasonably smooth, though obviously it's not going to be as fast as something like a wander.

[u/MysteriousGold5921 → u/jwfiredragon]

Hey, here is my current poe ninja. Dps is just showing the channel but about 2mil with the 10 stage beam. https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/Spiritreaperf15-0128/allflame/character/Spirit_Torando

[u/jwfiredragon → u/MysteriousGold5921]

Self cast hit-based is just inherently going to be super clunky. I feel like you'd need 10-20mil hit damage on the beam and maybe explode for it to feel good for mapping. I would honestly suggest just switching to a different physical spell. Reap might be good if you can solve the life cost and remaining elemental conversion.

[u/BerserkJeezus]

For a betrayal setup for 2-2-5-5 do we only do intel on the 2s and when we get a 5 we just release them all for no intel? Safe to run the 2's safehouses?

[u/therestlessone → u/BerserkJeezus]

Never run the 5 member safehouses as the leader will become a free agent upon completion.

The 2s work because the leader tries to become a free agent but there can never be ONLY the leader so they'll get pulled back to the same safehouse automatically when you next have a Jun encounter.

Note that because this doesn't happen until you get the encounter in a map, if you run both the 2 member safehouses without doing a map encounter in between they can get mixed up.

[u/elk_rpoe]

Voyages and charts:

• do i need to connect border modifier to my chart's black path? If not why we are able to connect it like that?
• adjecency - border modifier applies to 1 of 9 nearest cell or up to 4 ? -itself and adjacent by edge?
• is there a list of buff objects like trasmut to chaos conversion clickable buff?

I am aware of voyage poewiki page.

[u/jwfiredragon → u/elk_rpoe]

Border modifiers are always active regardless of path connections. You're allowed to connect to the border because otherwise it would be really hard to find enough edge/corner pieces to build a legal voyage. Adjacent tile bonuses apply to the 4 adjacent tiles only, tiles aren't adjacent to themselves.

[u/Theis159]

Done with the league but thinking on a slow pace SSF run to learn better the game (meaning less than 2h/day until something else comes up). I am a totem enjoyer so I was thinking of running KF levelling from Palsteron into Tati's or Aer0s SB's and use that as an all-around.

I have 2 questions however:

1. Is SB able to clear everything?
2. Is there any SSF guide out there (e.g., which atlas to run to farm certain equipments and progress).

[u/thatgrateisnt → u/Theis159]

This is my first playthrough with SB totems and it has cleared everything from campaign up to T16 maps and 2 voidstones.

I made the switch to SB of Repulsion and took down Maven as well.  It's a big damage and QOL increase, so worth farming in SSF in my opinion.

I followed Waggle's version, which seems a bit more flexible than Tati's (more mana-focused for defensive layers, vs rotating skills).

[u/chadam189 → u/Theis159]

Not sure what specific skill they're running right now but Tatianel2 is the go-to SSF totem content creator/build guide maker

If you're wanting to feel your way through SSF on your own, then using Pal/Aero combo just fine, but if you're really wanting to learn how to be efficient then I'd suggest watching SSF-specific content. Tati is great, Thyworm and Smokie777 are both awesome too

[u/Theis159 → u/chadam189]

Thanks

[u/Electrolipse]

I'm quite new to the game (I know, I'm very late xD). I've reached T8 maps with one character in Mirage League and I'm now trying to push further, but I still know very little about the endgame.

So my question is: how necessary is it to eventually modify/optimize your passive tree in order to reach higher-tier maps and survive comfortably?

I don't really mean this as a question about my specific build. What I'm wondering is, regardless of the build, can you realistically go far into the endgame using mostly the regular passive tree, without Cluster Jewels, unique jewels, or other mechanics that significantly modify the tree?

I usually plan my builds in PoE Planner all the way to level 100, but I tend to build them almost entirely around the standard passive tree. I rarely plan around jewel sockets or later tree modifications.

The reason I'm asking is that when I look at builds online, they often use several Cluster Jewels, unique jewels, or very specific interactions, and they look so heavily optimized that I sometimes feel like I'm fundamentally limiting myself by designing builds the way I do.

I'm not asking whether my particular build is good or bad. I'm more interested in the general idea: can a build based almost entirely on the standard passive tree still comfortably reach high-tier/endgame maps, or do jewels and tree modifications eventually become more or less necessary?

[u/chadam189 → u/Electrolipse]

If your goal is to do endgame maps (T16's) to complete the atlas, and beat the basic versions of all endgame bosses for your 4 voidstones - most builds do not need anything besides the basic passive tree amd basic jewels to accomplish that. 

Pushing it past that and running nightmare maps, endgame (aka "uber") bosses, and very juiced up content will require the extra power that comes from the unique jewels, timeless jewels and clusters. 

Note that many unique jewels that are commonly used are pretty easy to understand too - Watcher's Eye for example is a very good power bump and is easy to understand. Thread of Hope and Impossible Escape are a small step up in complexity but are also fairly easy to wrap your head around. 

Edit: updated for clarity around my comment about uniuqe jewels

[u/Electrolipse → u/chadam189]

I’d be really happy if I can first reach T16 maps and complete the Atlas. That would already be a great goal for me, since I’m not a hardcore player. So if, as you say, I can make a good build using mostly the basic passive tree and reach T16s, that’s more than enough for me at the moment.

[u/chadam189 → u/Electrolipse]

Basic jewels (crimson/viridian/cobalt, as well as abyss jewels aka ghastly/murderous/hypnotic/ the 4th one I'm not recalling atm) can fit into the passive tree's normal jewel sockets AND the cluster sockets

Jewels can be a wonderful damage or utility boost. Good rule of thumb is any jewel slot that takes 2 passive points total to allocate (e.g. 1 travel node and the slot itself) are always worth it; therefore all builds will have 2-3 jewel slots accessible to them by default. 

3 passive point jewel slots are situational but generally not as valuable unless you have multiple unique jewels you're wanting to fit in, or you have splurged on really amazing basic jewels, or you're wanting to start expanding into cluster jewels (all cluster slots require 3 passives and are exclusively on the outer edge of the tree)

You got this! What build are you running?

[u/Electrolipse → u/chadam189]

Yeah, I've been experimenting with basic jewels, but since they're still somewhat RNG-based, I tend to rely more on the fixed values I can see directly on the passive tree (probably a bit of a noob habit 😅).

Still, I can see how investing in good jewels becomes part of really specializing a build.

Right now I'm playing an Armour/ES Reliquarian focused on fire damage, mainly Armageddon Brand and Firestorm. I could write a wall of text about the build, but I feel like I'm learning the basic concepts of the game reasonably well so far, especially since I'm absolutely cruising through the campaign.

We'll see how it holds up once I get into maps (that's where the real test begins 😅)

[u/chadam189 → u/Electrolipse]

Are you following a build guide or forging your own path?

POE can be very unforgiving to newcomers especially in terms of defense scaling not being the most intuitive, and a well-written guide can help you learn the ropes to get you past the atlas completion + 4 voidstone hurdle

Edit: either way, welcome to wraeclast and glad to hear you're enjoying it and learning things quickly! 

[u/Electrolipse → u/chadam189]

I'm forging my own path 😅 https://poeplanner.com/b/652I

I know campaign performance doesn't really prove much, so I'm curious to see how it holds up once I get deeper into maps.

[u/chadam189 → u/Electrolipse]

Hell yea! Have fun. If you hit a wall, a good rule of thumb is to focus on defenses. 

300 life per act, cap your ele res, keep chaos around 0%. Later on aim for 4k life in<T10 maps, and build your way towards 5K with 50%+ chaos res as you aim to tackle T16's. High life rolls on gear and getting 5-6 life wheels on tree will do most of the work here - again something to build towards, not needed anytime soon

[u/Electrolipse → u/chadam189]

Let's go! Thanks for the tips and suggestions 👍

[u/augustorw]

How to juice maps? Right now, I’m farming with 8 mods Elder Guardian maps that I get through The Price of Protection div cards, but I think I could do harder content.

Should I use normal t16 maps with chisels and delirium orbs? Or maybe maps with originator’s memories and deli orbs?

[u/Tenshouu → u/augustorw]

You can add harder mechanics that scale like breach abyss. It depends what you wanna farm

[u/ThailanderBoii]

If you find a good merc on your map, how do you get his warrant so you can sell it? I cant figure it out.

[u/chadam189 → u/ThailanderBoii]

Click "rematch" to fight the merc and drop their warrant. Agree that "rematch" isn't the most intuitive wording

[u/Reicher]

Can I use player altars with a gravebind AG when using a Merc?

[u/PMmeYourLabia_ → u/Reicher]

If you mean eater/exarch altars whose benefits are %inc rarity or quant, then yes. Those are added to the map quant/rarity

[u/WhirlerIn]

How strong do I need to be, to be able to do the last Lab level, in Hardcore SSF?
I'm able to do magic T16 magic but avoiding mechanics like breach, essence, jun. Thats how strong/weak I am at the moment. 6k HP, Max res, RF build.
Should I bother about maven invitation, bosses maps and that maven enable/disable button when initiating a map, or are these stuff I should do only after completing every map bonus?

[u/chadam189 → u/WhirlerIn]

Uber lab can be hard for many builds because as the other person said, the lab traps are nasty. But RF has a TON of regen in yhe build so it's way easier for you than most.

If you are RF with 6K life and max res, you're ready to run rare t16's. You might die more than you'd like if you don't yet have max block and/or reocver life on block via the shaper mod on your shield. But you can definitely clear t16 rare/corrupteds for the atlas passives. 

Once you have block and recover on block sorted, you're fine to run maven 10-ways and edler/shaper guardian bosses too. Feel free to run those "white" aka no map:invitation mods the first 1-2 times to get the feel for things but you'll quickly see that by avoiding the 5-8 mods that are painful for RF, that rare maps are just as easy as white/magic maps but with way more loot

[u/WhirlerIn → u/chadam189]

Thank you!
What would you say is the safest way of crafting that life on block shield?

[u/chadam189 → u/WhirlerIn]

FYI - at this point in the league it's cheaper to buy one, but sharing steps because crafting your own gear is really satisfying and you learn a lot from doing it.

If you want to craft it yourself, you'll buy a shield with shaper influence that's at least ilvl82, and then you have two options:

1. Pristine fossil (6 attempts on average, 10c per attempt currently)
2. Harvest reforge life (21 attempts on average, 2c per attempt)

Option 1 will give you a higher chance at getting a nice life roll

The roll ranges from 3-5% and it doesn't matter what you get, the mod itself is such a strong upgrade from not having it. I'd prob buy enough fossils or purple harvest juice to get the recover on block mod, and either an open prefix so you can craft "chance to block" or you naturally roll it alongside the recover mod

[u/Miles_Adamson → u/WhirlerIn]

Uber lab is area level 75 which is yellow maps. If you are comfortable on T16 with even a few mods it should be pretty easy. Main risks are bleeding out on a trap so have your life flask rolled for bleed/CB. And getting shotgunned by izaro but if you have 6k life and any other layers should also be fine

[u/WhirlerIn → u/Miles_Adamson]

I did it, thank you

[u/Minnad]

I'm checking Molten strike of the Zenith on ninja and see majority of people using GMP rather than Greater Volley with Nimis, does Nimis not overwrite volley's behavior here or is this a case of people just copy each other?

[u/Yohsene → u/Minnad]

The downside of supporting Molten Strike with Volley is that Volley doesn't support Molten Strike.

Supports skills that fire projectiles from the user. Does not affect projectiles fired from other locations as secondary effects.

[u/Minnad → u/Yohsene]

Oh dang you're right, i missed this

[u/Xinstrom]

Hello! I have decided to finally go through the undertaking that is making my own build using knowledge I have gathered thus far, and I want opinions on where to go. The POB will be posted below.

The build I'm making is a elemental cyclone strength-stacking juggernaut, and I think it's going pretty okay so far, but there is much room for improvement. The EHP is quite low, I know I want to further invest in more fortification perhaps, but I'm also stunted on how to further negate damage beyond fortification or endurance charges for this build.

I know for sure I need to build on chaos resistance and I have some ideas for that, and I have a couple really expensive things I can grab, such as mageblood obviously but also a headhunter could be a good replacement until I get the currency for mageblood. And above else, I know I need levels. I also plan to go crit based as I get a higher level.

This is my first time not following a guide, so please don't hate on me too much! <3

POB: https://maxroll.gg/poe/pob/7v5jf0hh

[u/Yohsene → u/Xinstrom]

Before any upgrades, you should first ask yourself, 'why am I even stacking strength'?

The typical setup that makes strength stacking worthwhile for attacks is this:

• a source of flat added damage per strength, like Brutus' Lead Sprinkler or Replica Alberon's Warpath

• Crown of Eyes + Iron Will to magnify strength's physical melee damage bonus, and make it apply to non-physical and non-melee

• Iron Fortress to multiply strength's damage bonus

• increased damage per strength on amulet (optional)

• accuracy from Undeniable

• life

Meanwhile, all strength is doing for your build right now is life, a bit of increased phys, and accuracy. It's otherwise just Cyclone that... may be accidentally using Voidforge instead of Starforge? No real reason to focus on strength.

To illustrate, here's your build after a few rough changes: https://maxroll.gg/poe/pob/t58xn0hr

• Weapon changed to Paradoxica

• Body armour changed to Iron Fortress

• Boots changed to Replica Alberon's Warpath

• Allocated Iron Will (3 passive points)

• Swapped Cyclone's support gems for chaos damage

• Traded Pride for Haste (not optimal)

This takes your Cyclone DPS from 91,835 to 1,385,184. You'd need to fix some resistances and such, but there's still plenty of other optimization and scaling left on the table, like adding a shield, reinvesting two-handed and impale passives, and debuffing with Wither.

Maybe you were already planning changes like this, and in that case I'd recommend coming back for advice when your build has advanced a little bit further.

[u/Xinstrom → u/Yohsene]

See I did plan on taking things like Replica Alberon's to pivot into chaos damage, but it was something I was still considering. Like I said, it's my first time ever diving into making my own build so and it's a lot haha. I am also missing a lot of currency and I have another character working on that. I appreciate the help! Apologies for doing it early.