In Path Of Exile 3.25, there are many side quests, but not all of them are important. So how should you choose? The correct way is to focus on those quests that reward Passive Points, Passive Refund Points, or Quicksilver Flasks, and ignore the rest. This is especially important at the beginning of a new league.
Deal with Bandits is an important side quest. During the quest, players can choose to get Passive Points or generous rewards. To help players make the right choice for themselves, here are some details on trading with Bandits for your reference.
The Way To Deal With Bandits
Players need to enter the second act of the game to trade with Bandits. First, reach Forest Encampment and talk to Eramir to get bandit leader who is causing trouble in this area. Then you will face a big choice, which is to kill the bandit leader or help them and unite with them.
If you choose to kill them, you will need to collect bandits’ amulets and then lead them to Eramir in Forest Encampment to get a free Passive Point. There are a total of three bandits that need to be dealt with, and killing them will bring you a generous reward.
If you choose to help these bandits, then here are some details.
Helping Kraityn
Entering Crossroads from an Old Fields, you will reach Broken Bridge, where Kraityn is.
Not all three bandits need to be helped or killed. You can make a choice based on your needs. If you decide to help Kraityn but kill Alira and Oak, you will gain 8% permanent movement speed. This speed benefit players to complete the campaign quickly. But once you enter the map, you will surprise that there are actually better gains can be obtained.
Helping Alira
Players can quickly enter Western Forest from Riverways, which is where Alira is located. You can notice that Alira is always standing opposite Weaver’s Chamber. If you choose to help her and kill the other two bandits, you will gain 15% Elemental Resistances. Considering that all Elemental Resistances are reduced by 60 at the end of the game, this has great potential.
Helping Alira is a good choice. Even if you lose Passive Points, you will only lose one in terms of number.
Helping Oak
Players can find Oak near Riverways. If you choose to help Oak and kill the two bandits mentioned above, you will get +40 maximum life. It sounds tempting, but you still have to consider the specific situation, such as the class you have chosen. For classes like Ranger that can’t get close to a lot of life nodes on the tree, Helping Oak is certainly the best choice.
For players who value Elemental Resistances, Helping Alira is the first choice. But if your Elemental Resistances are already capped, embracing 40 flat life is also a good deal.
Killing All Bandits
If you are not interested in the rewards for helping bandits, then kill them to earn Passive Points. Besides this, players will be gifted an Apex quest item, which serves as a necessity to access Ancient Pyramid and complete the second act.
Completing Sacred Ground quest will provide a Passive Point and two Passive Skill Refund Points to players, so it is absolutely deserved to be tried.
With the release of Settlers of Kalguur, the rewards of dealing with the Bandits quest have been oriented. Here lies the conclusion of the information we mentioned before:
- Helping Alira: 15% to all Elemental Resistances
- Helping Kraityn: 8% increased Movement Speed
- Helping Oak: 40 to Maximum Life
- Killing All Bandits: One Passive Point
Change Your Choice Of Bandit
Players can change their previous choice by making a Vendor Recipe, which demands 20 Orbs of Regret. It may sound a little expensive, trading it with POE Currency will be a feasible choice. For Vendor Recipe, you just need to sell 20 Orbs of Regret along with a specific amulet to get Book of Reform.
- Save Alira: 20 Orbs of Regret + Lapis Amulet
- Save Kraityn: 20 Orbs of Regret + Jade Amulet
- Save Oak: 20 Orbs of Regret + Amber Amulet
- Kill All Bandits: 20 Orbs of Regret + Onyx Amulet
Then right-click on Book of Reform to gain passive bonuses from a specific bandit.
In a nutshell, these are the sharing of how to dealing with bandits. The key is to combine it with your practical needs to make a choice that will help you get through campaign easily. Thanks for reading.
Hello Exiles, it’s time to introduce you to the best build in Path of Exile 3.25. This super tank build will help you survive until the end of the league. That’s right, we are here with Molten Strike Trickster build! In this guide, we will take a detailed look at how this build works and how to play it. Let’s jump right in!
Skills
For this build, we will use two different skills, one for map clearing and one for Uber Bossing.
Single Target Skill
Let’s start with the single target skill. Our skill of choice is Molten Strike. When you hit an enemy, it will spray Magma Balls, and if you slow the projectile speed down enough, all the balls can even hit the same target.
Unfortunately, this skill is not very strong in terms of map clearing, but it is the best single target skill you can play with this build.
However, I believe that players who have played this build in the previous league know that the damage brought by this build is self-evident. Everything will melt in a few seconds. The damage is so high that we even need to stop dealing damage to show how strong this build is.
Clear Skill
Our clear skill choice is Lightning Strike, a melee skill that converts half of physical damage to lightning damage. In addition to this, it has a secondary effect that fires a projectile every time you hit an enemy with a melee weapon.
Both melee and projectile attacks can hit the same target. It’s just that the projectile part will travel on the ground, which can clear the entire screen in a second, while also having enough single-target damage to knock down the map boss very quickly. Therefore, this build also has a unique advantage in POE Currency farming.
Damage Scaling
Next, let’s talk about the damage scaling of this build.
For this, we will use Ephemeral Edge. Additionally, you’ll need Resolute Technique corruption, and the easiest way to get it is to get non-corrupted ones, then Vaal or Double Corrupt your weapons yourself until you reach this.
However, I have to say, I don’t recommend getting Resolute Technique corruption directly from vendors. It’s not worth the price tag of 10 Divine Orbs or more. You’ll be better off saving your hard-earned currency by doing it yourself.
Since our main damage type is Lightning, our damage range is very high compared to other builds. What’s more, we can also use Unique Amulet, Voice of the Storm, to get more damage in this build.
On top of that, Lightning Damage with Non-Critical Strikes is Lucky. This means that every time we damage an enemy, the game will roll twice and automatically choose the higher number. This is great when your damage range is very high.
Note that we can’t scale crits because we have Unique Amulet, but we can use a very interesting Keystone, Precise Technique, to make up for this shortcoming. If Accuracy Rating is higher than Maximum Life, the attack damage is increased by 40%, in exchange for which we cannot deal critical hits. More importantly, because we used Chaos Inoculation, our Maximum Life is 1, so this Keystone will work effortlessly.
Then, we can also use 3 Curses in this build because we used Anathema Unique Ring. Since our Curse limit is equal to our maximum Power Charges, and each character can have 3 Charges, our Curse limit is 3.
Here, the Curses we can use are as follows: Elemental Weakness, Conductivity and Sniper’s Mark.
Many people may ask how this Unique Ring works if there are no Power Charges in the build. Actually, Curse generation is not exactly as described in the ring, so don’t worry about this. In many cases, Curse will have an effect on Boss even if we don’t have Charges.
Defense Tips
In Settlers of Kalguur League, we tried something new as a defensive layer, namely Attack and Spell Block. In this way, we have almost reached the block cap for this build.
In addition, we have added a new item in this build that we have never used before, and that is Aegis Aurora. This Shield is so elegant. The main reason we chose this Shield is that when you block, it restores Energy Shield equal to 2% of Armor.
Actually, this alone is not interesting, because how can Trickster have armor to take advantage of it? However, in this league, we use Iron Reflexes again. This Keystone will convert all our Evasion Rating to Armor, which allows us to benefit from Aegis Aurora now.
Now this build has reached 56k Armor, which means that every time we block, we will gain 1.2 Energy Shield. So basically we can stand still on T17 maps and not die easily unless there is a Detonate Dead summoner there.
How To Reach 100% Flask Uptime?
Finally, let’s talk about a new feature in this league. For this build, we used five flasks, and they all have 100% uptime. We achieved this by doing a few things.
First and foremost, we used Tides of Time with a perfect rolled utility flask charge gain. Additionally, we were able to increase flask duration and flask effect by 1 flask charge gain on Searing Exarch’s Body Armour and taking Natural Remedies.
More importantly, we needed to precisely choose 4 Tattoos to extend the flask charge time. All of this combined, we can have 100% flask uptime.
In conclusion, following this guide to build Molten Strike Trickster can bring you a top-notch gaming experience and help you fight to the end in POE 3.25!
In Path of Exile 3.25, Blight, one of the most anticipated and popular League Mechanics, has been tweaked and changed. And it has embraced a wave of hot discussion simultaneously.
In response to these changes, this article has written a Blight guide so that you can better understand the relevant mechanisms and make some adjustments to earn more currency.
Complete Blight In A Easy Way
Here we need to understand some fresh changes in Blight in leagues. For example, the changes to Blight mechanics in the map, the actual Blighted and Blight-Ravaged maps themselves. But these changes are not enough to change the overall strategy and measures.
First, players need to apply two special Oil Anoints on their Rings. In this process, you don’t need to worry about the character build, because Ring Annoints only work on Blight Towers. Below we will introduce the two Ring Anoints you need to prepare.
Best Blight Ring Anoints
When Your Meteor Towers Create Burning Ground For 3 Seconds On Hit:
- Indigo Oil
- Violet Oil
Players can further clear some obstacles in Blight’s lanes by using AoE ground damage fire to deal continuous damage to nearby enemies. However, this damage is not very effective in some lanes, such as Meteor Tower, and this does not work well for Burning Ground.
When Enemies Who Are Being Influenced By Chilling Beams Have Been Frozen For 0.2 Seconds By Your Chilling Towers:
- Opalescent Oil
- Silver Oil
This anoint freezes enemies in your lanes, and your towers will then damage them. This damage also works on bosses. Since the lanes are frozen, players can also use low-quality equipment to run the highest level Blight-Ravaged maps.
The Best Blight Strategy In Path Of Exile
The best strategy is actually simple, which means you just need to find the best Anoints for all Blight mechanics.
When lanes appear, find the choke points where lanes intersect. You can build many towers here. Among them, the following four towers need to be paid special attention when building.
- Level 3 Empower Tower
- Level 3 Ground Tower
- Level 3 Chilling Tower
- Level 4 Meteor Tower
Level 3 Empower Tower is a key point. To get the buff, you need to make sure that all the towers you build are covered by Level 3 Empower Tower. It is worth noting that the higher the level does not mean better effect, so don’t blindly upgrade the level. For example, Level 4 Empower Towers do not provide buffs, Level 4 Chilling Towers cannot effectively use your Ring Anoint, and Level 4 Ground Tower cannot block enemy attacks.
If new lanes are opened, be sure to use the combination of these towers to set at least one choke point for each lane.
Best Ways To Make Currency With Blight
Blight mechanic can also bring you a lot of benefits. Here are three ways to make POE Currency and their specific usage details.
Blight-Ravaged Maps
First, raise Chisel quality to 20%, use Alchemy Orb, make sure they have no modifiers which monsters can’t be stunned or slowed down. If there are, clean them and use Alchemy Orb again.
Next, you can Anoint 9 Oils in Blight-Ravaged Maps. Among them, Golden Oils are very expensive and you may not be able to use them continuously. According to the actual situation, here lies two combinations for your choices:
- 1 x Golden Oil
- 3 x Silver Oils
- 2 x Opalescent Oils
- 3 x Teal Oils
If the price of Golden Oils is high, this combination is actually more recommended:
- 2 x Black Oils
- 1 x Opalescent Oil
- 3 x Silver Oils
- 3 x Teal Oils
Blighted Maps
Compared with Blight-Ravaged Maps, Blighted Maps are relatively simple. Therefore, you need to make good use of this method. All you need to do is Chisel it, then use Alch Orb and Vaal Orb.
This method only requires three Oils, and you can choose based on your budget. For example, 3x Crimson Oils or 3x Teal Oils.
In-Map Blight
In-Map Blight is probably the best way to make Currency. It uses the new Templar Ingenuity node on Atlas Passive Tree. This node can help you recover some extra rewards which are obtained by completing Blight mechanic after building towers. The higher the level of tower the player builds, the better the rewards.
This means that the player needs to deal with Blight mechanic according to their character damage, and then build as high-level towers as possible. For example, Tier 4 Meteor Tower, Tier 4 Flamethrower Tower, etc. Similarly, the more towers are built, the more rewards they will recover.
Moreover, this strategy can also obtain a large amount of Gold, which serves as necessity in Settlers of Kalguur league mechanic.
The above is some information about Blight mechanic. I hope this guide can help you use Blight better and gain more Currency! Thank you for reading.
Hello, fellow exiles! Here, we will share Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker build in POE 3.25, which is an endgame melee slam build specifically for Marauder lovers.
It is a budget-friendly build that can be gradually scaled and upgraded as you upgrade Berserker build. However, I must remind you that while this build is suitable for new players, it is not suitable for players who like to farm Ubers. So you can decide whether you want to try this build based on your needs.
Pros And Cons
First, let’s talk about the pros and cons of this build.
For the pros, it can easily run T16 maps, clear speed is great, and has high DPS at the same time. This build is perfect for any juiced up farming strategy. Because of its excellent full-screen damage, it can even clear Breach and Legion.
In addition, its play style feels good, satisfying and addictive, and you can dodge most of the random hits in the game. And thanks to Berserker’s Ascendancy Notable, your attacks are pretty fast too.
Now let’s talk about the downsides. The biggest downside, I can say is that there isn’t a lot of damage scaling you can add to items. The only reasonable Unique item you can add to the build also has a terrible downside.
Rare items have almost the exact same generic mods like Resistances and Armor for most other builds. You also don’t get much power out of Eldritch Implicit.
While you can farm any Pinnacle Boss, the fights with Maven and Sirus are terrible because they teleport all the time. If you don’t have enough Armor and max Resistances, you’ll often find yourself dying from Self-damage and ground degens.
Build Setup
You can play this build with any non-elemental slam skill. Currently, Sunder, Ground Slam of Earthshaking, and Ice Crash have the highest DPS among the slam skills. However, Ice Crash is an elemental skill. Sunder has a huge off-screen range, and Ground Slam of Earthshaking is great for map clearing and is a tremendous hit!
For Warcry builds, average damage is more reliable than DPS. It’s basically a big bonk playstyle where you can only get a few Exerted Attacks in before all the massive bonus damage from Warcry runs out. Especially Intimidating Cry, which gives you double the damage! So don't scale your total attack speed above 2.5.
For weapons, a base attack speed of 1.7 is just about right to start. Flat Physical Damage is the most important part here. At levels 50 to 70, you can use an Axe with 500 Physical DPS, 80 to 95 with 700 Physical DPS is not bad, but after level 90 you should consider upgrading to an Axe with 1000+ Physical DPS. It’s definitely worth it!
Warcry Skills
A big mistake a lot of players make with this type of build is they think Warcry is worth manually casting. Manually casting Enduring Cry, Rallying Cry, and Intimidating Cry works much better. Enduring Cry doesn’t do any attacks, but Intimidating Cry basically does double the damage, however, it does much less damage than other Warcries. So you don’t need to press all those buttons to kill blue monsters.
You just need to time it well in difficult encounters like farming Essence and major boss fights. All of these Warcries are basically one-shot kills, especially against a lot of tanky monsters. So this build is basically timing your attacks while jumping and dodging stuff.
I think GGG should seriously consider rebalancing Autoexertion for the melee. At least for manual casting, you can use Urgent Orders Support with 20% quality for each Supported Warcries to make it less annoying to cast.
So why don’t we use Infernal Cry here? The major problem is Elemental Reflect, secondly it doesn’t pair well with Autoexertion, and thirdly Combustion doesn’t scale with our physical damage build. Worse still, it’s just another extra button. If you’re playing a pure physical attack build, you’d better equip Impale in your build. If you can’t invest in it, just take Impaler Keystone. It will work well during mapping.
Enduring Cry is important when you enter boss fights. While getting Warcry Mastery with at least 10 power, the increased Charge Duration Mastery will help you have consistent maximum Endurance Charges. This is a very powerful defensive buff in this league. So don’t forget about that.
Another new tech we have in POE 3.25 is autocast from Battlemage Warcry. You can link Autoexertion and Battlemage Warcry with spells like Vulnerability and easily trigger this skill when it’s triggered.
Mana Leech
So how does this build sustain mana? The main answer is Mana Leech. There are many ways to get it. The easiest way is to get physical damage as mana from any rare gem.
Another key is to reduce the mana cost of skills as much as possible, especially from Passive Skill Tree. In the later stages, you need at least 1 Non-Channeling Ring, which is very important for melee skills. Once you get Autoexertion, it is crucial to invest more POE Currency in your Mana Reservation Efficiency.
Gear
Next, let’s look at the gear required for this build.
First, equip Ventor’s Gamble not only for the increased Rarity and Gold drop rate but also for the extra Mana Reservation.
Choose Null and Void Gloves just for stacking Rampage and the fun of using it when mapping. What’s more, Rallying Cry can also treat minions in Rampage as allies, giving you more damage.
You can use rare gloves with mods such as Life, Attack Speed, and Leech, as well as Implicits with buffs such as Maim and Herald of Purity. Unlike the elemental skills, we don’t have a lot of options here.
We also have Unwavering Stance in this build, mainly because if we get stunned in Warcry, it could mean there’s another chance.
Finally, Echoes of Creation gives us a massive damage bonus, but at the cost of taking heavy physical damage. That’s why we need to use Determination and Light of Meaning instead of the damage one.
Playstyle
Finally, the playstyle of this build also takes a little time to get used to. It maps well, and you have enough damage to map even without Warcry. But in boss fights, you need to hit the target a few times first to spawn Herald of Purity Minions.
Then, before you hit the big bonk into Oblivion, you can use Rallying Cry and Intimidating Cry. That’s why your damage is inconsistent on the first attack. This is not a problem in mapping, because you always have minions around you. You basically need a target and some allies around you. It works better if you use Warcry near the target, because you can get a total of 25 strength.
That’s it for the complete guide to this Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker build. Trying out this top melee build will give you an exciting gaming experience! See you next time!
As we all know, Path of Exile 3.25 has welcomed its new league, Settlers of Kalguur, and has added many map changes. In this game, the changes in new maps mean that you need to make some adjustments to your previous farming strategy, so it is very important to know some of the best maps for farming.
This guide will lead you to the best maps for farming in Settlers of Kalguur league, so that you can greatly increase your POE Currency, Div Cards and other important equipment in the game!
Map Changes
Before introducing the new maps, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the changes in the maps in this Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur.
New Item Levels and Improved Defenses
In this league, aura effects have been weakened, so you must increase your defense capabilities when you need to use aura effects. This will be achieved by introducing new item tiers, which will provide higher base stats, such as maximum health.
New Chisel Tools
In order to increase the efficiency of map utilization, a new set of chisel tools has been added for you. Among them, Maven’s chisel can increase the drop rate of maps according to the map type, such as POE Currency, Scarabs and other valuable drops.
Nameless Seer Map Scrying
In this new map mechanic, you can use Divination Scarab of Curation to merge the loot table of one map into another map. In simple terms, you will get more rare loot. For example, you can add loot from Crimson Temple to maps such as Strand or Beach, so that the loot in the former will also appear on the latter map.
Return Of Previous League Mechanics
Although Settlers of Kalguur League is a new one, a few popular features from previous leagues have also returned. Take Recombinators in Sentinel League, which allow you to add some certainty to the production process. There’s also Reflection Mechanic in Kalandra League, which lets you split some loot in two via Reflecting Mist item.
Best Maps For Farming
After understanding the recent changes, you can look at the ones that can make it easier for you to maximize your income.
Tropical Island
If you ask the player community which map is the easiest to explore, most people will answer your Tropical Island. This map is mainly designed linearly, so you can easily find where you want to go.
In this way, you can quickly clear the monsters on this map and collect loot. In addition, the density of monsters on Tropical Island is also very good. You can experience fast-paced farming here, which is very suitable for getting more POE Currency in the early stages of the league.
Burial Chambers
For Burial Chambers, what is more attractive to players is that it can drop Doctor divination cards for Headhunter. There will be several large rooms on this map, and the enemies inside are also very dense. Like Tropical Island, it is also very suitable for fast farming.
Strand
As a linear layout, Strand has also become a favorite choice for many players. The map’s wide open spaces and some obvious monster locations make it an ideal choice for players who focus on efficient clearing.
Glacier
Unlike the previous ones, Glacier provides players with a semi-linear path that mixes open areas with narrow corridors, which are very friendly to some melee builds. Additionally, shooting the entire map is a very simple process, ensuring both smooth farming and the easy accumulation of loot.
Atoll
Atoll’s circular layout is very rare in Path of Exile 3.25, and its central island makes it easier for players to clear and navigate. Atoll’s monster density is also very high, which you can use to farm currency.
Mesa
The plateau in the center of Mesa is a very open area, which provides you with plenty of space to clear monsters. Similarly, the design of Mesa is also very simple, and the bosses in it are not difficult to defeat, which is perfect for farming.
Underground Sea
The biggest feature of Underground Sea is its winding tunnels, but don’t think it is very difficult to clear, because there are interconnected caves in each area for you to pass through. In addition, it can also provide you with a steady supply of loot and XP.
Tower
In previous leagues, players have always wanted developers to design a multi-story staircase for Tower. Now it has been realized in the Settlers of Kalguur League, and now you can explore up the stairs one level at a time.
Among all the loot in Tower, the most famous one is Nurse divination card, which can be used to exchange for Doctor card. If you want to get some valuable divination cards early in the league, you can come to Tower.
Haunted Mansion
If you have ever seen Haunted Mansion, you will find that it is a mansion in itself, with many interconnected rooms. The layout in Haunted Mansion is also very compact, and you can completely clear the monsters in Haunted Mansion without moving around too much.
These are some maps that can be used for efficient farming in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. I hope you can have fun playing in the new league!
With the end of Affliction league, Wildwood Ascendancy mechanic also disappeared. However, GGG has been working on slowly integrating these Ascendancy mechanics into the core game. We can see this in POE 3.24. They added Apostate and Veruso’s Ambition in Necropolis, both of which provide full or partial access to certain Wildwood Ascendancy abilities.
Now in the current POE 3.25, we have the new Warden Ascendancy, replacing Raider. In addition, Pacify, Affliction, and Penance Mark were three Warlock of the Mists exclusive skills in Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction league. In POE 3.25, they return as part of some new Unique Rings, which are now exclusive drops from Ritual content.
Here we are going to focus on discussing the three new Unique Rings that grant us access to one of the three previous exclusive abilities of Warlock. The three new rings are: Hateful Accuser, Queller of Minds, and Selfish Shepherd.
We will talk about the mechanics of these three new Rings in detail to help you understand how to use them and whether it is worth investing more POE Currency in them. Let’s jump right in!
Unique Rings Base Types Explained
These three Unique Rings are exclusive drops for Ritual mechanic. Before we discuss the details of each ring, I should first mention the base type. Because this is a new Ritual exclusive base type.
For example, Nameless Ring can give you a 50% increase in Elemental Ailment duration and a 50% reduction in the effect of curses. This will usually be a double-edged sword unless you are doing some kind of Self-Chill build or similar.
Keep in mind that the full duration of using Reflected Ailments will not be increased with Ailment Duration modifier on these rings. Because Reflected Ailments Duration is only affected by offensive stats, such as the increased Ailments Duration you inflict on enemies.
However, modifiers that reduce the effects of your curses can also be very useful, especially when combined with flask modifiers or other same style modifiers to reduce the effects of curses on you by 100%.
Queller Of Minds
Let’s take a look at Queller of Minds first. This ring has some cast speed, maximum energy shield, and chaos resistance, but the reason you use these rings is that of the unique ability they provide, Pacify.
To be honest, this one is the weirdest of the three. It might even be the weirdest ability GGG has added to the game. It's really shocking that this skill would appear again after the Affliction league ended.
Pacify is a hex curse skill that initially does nothing, but if the curse duration has passed for at least 60%, the affected character will not deal damage. Then for the remaining 40% of the duration, Pacify prevents the target from dealing any damage.
This ability can only prevent entities from dealing damage directly. It does not have any effect on things that exist in the area. As a result, you won’t necessarily be directly harmed by the entity. For example, in Sirus boss fight, Storm Clouds will chase you. The damage caused by these Storm Clouds is not considered being caused by Sirus himself, so Pacify Curse will not prevent them from dealing additional damage to you.
More importantly, any effect that would kill the character directly without dealing any damage will still kill the character, such as Drowning Orbs in Eater of Worlds boss fight.
Note that whether Pacify is cast now or not, the duration of Pacify Curse can be altered by Curse Duration modifier, which will have an effect on the period when Curse has no effect and the period of time when the target cannot deal damage. For example, extending the Curse duration will make the target not deal damage for a longer period. But you will also have to wait longer until you actually reach the point where the target cannot deal damage.
And the effect cannot be altered, which means you can’t apply Temporal Chains or similar effects to the no-damage portion of the Curse to artificially extend its duration.
Pacify wasn’t used much during Affliction league, and this ring isn’t even used at all in POE 3.25 at the moment. Or maybe it’s just a really weird ability, as I said before.
But it’s possible that in the future someone realizes the perfect alignment of this curse and somehow avoids a boss from dealing with tremendous damage. But it’s a bit weird overall.
Hateful Accuser
Next up, we have Hateful Accuser, which definitely gets more use than the former.
Hateful Accuser has a certain cast speed, life, and chaos resistance, and it allows the use of Penance Mark skill. This was also a favorite ability of many Warlock users during Affliction league, and for good reason.
Penance Mark is a mark curse skill that targets a single enemy and behaves the same as any other mark skill, meaning it lasts indefinitely. It scales with the mark effect, and only one mark can be active at a time.
Once the mark hits a target, Phantasms are spawned, up to three per second. They are essentially allies of that target, so by default, this gives you new targets to use.
These Phantasms are considered Common Rare enemies and do not drop loot when killed, and they do not leave any bodies behind. They do grant both Flask Charges and Vaal Souls, though, which is why Affliction league favors Mark.
The reason Hateful Accuser is being used a lot in POE 3.25 is because summoned Phantasms can be used to generate hit and kill effects. And since they also fire projectile spells, they can also be used to trigger hit effects and other similar stats, such as on blocking mechanics.
One of its major use cases right now is creating mobs on Chieftain, which has a chance to trigger Hinekora, Death’s Fury. When you kill them, Explosion and any subsequent Ignites will deal a ton of damage, which is particularly useful for Righteous Fire builds that struggle with single target damage.
But that’s not the only use that’s been getting a lot of attention. Because in POE 3.25, the newly added Retaliation skill gives Hateful Accuser another use case. These skills require specific conditions to be met, such as blocking before using them, and Phantasms formed by Penance Mark can help make these abilities more reliable. This way you can use them more often in boss scenarios.
As mentioned before, Penance Mark scales with Mark effect, and each breakpoint of 33.3% Mark effect provides additional summoned Phantasms when hitting.
Selfish Shepherd
Finally, we have Selfish Shepherd. This ring has some cast speed, maximum energy shield, and chaos resistance, and it allows the use of Affliction abilities, which is not Curse or Mark.
This is a skill that can only target your minions to have a permanent effect on them. This effect causes them to take physical damage over time, with the damage rate starting at 8% of your maximum life per second, increasing by 100% per second, and then your character regenerates life per second equal to 20% of this damage.
This is an effect that is inflicted on your minions, totaling all minions that have the same effect on them. So when a minion reaches 20% of their maximum life, they explode, dealing 50% of their maximum life as physical damage to surrounding enemies, which provides a pretty decent amount of healing for your character.
So this is actually a pretty powerful effect. And in terms of base damage, it’s much higher than minion instability, which causes a minion to explode after life drops to a low point ( 50% of life) dealing 33% of its maximum life as fire damage. So, essentially, you need to get your minions’ life down to a lower threshold to get a bigger payoff.
But remember that this is physical damage, and it will be affected by any relevant Conversion modifiers that the minion has. For example, Absolution Minion will convert 50% of physical damage to lightning damage, or inherent Conversion modifiers that don’t necessarily exist as Skill Gems, such as Summon Raging Spirit, which has a 100% conversion of physical to fire damage.
However, this skill offers a hands-on, proactive playstyle rather than the automated playstyle some might be hoping for.
Outro
Overall, we expect to see some use of Hateful Accuser and Selfish Shepherd, especially Hateful Accuser’s Penance Mark, as its undeniable synergy with Hinekora, Death’s Fury will make it even more useful. Which Unique Ring would you be more interested in trying? Do you have a better way to maximize their potential? Good luck!
