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[Top 10] Path of Exile Best Unique Jewels (And How To Get Them) (3.21)

Bruno C. — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 02:40:53 +0000

In Path of Exile 3.20, GGG changed how rare and unique the unique jewels were, giving them weight and value when they were found. They also added several powerful jewels, while retiring most of the less used ones. With this balance pass, it changed the whole landscape for unique jewels and their accessibility. So here is a list of the best jewels and how you can get them!

10 – Unique Cluster Jewels

While perhaps not the strongest jewels nowadays, they are some of the most build-enabling or even defining unique jewels in the game, allowing you to play unique builds that were previously unheard of or even possible to exist.

It has 7 unique variations, and each do a completely different thing. The most coveted one is The Interrogation, which enables the alternative ailments (Brittle, Scorch and Sap) at the cost of losing the regular ailments (Chill, Freeze, Ignite, Shock). For many builds, that is a fair trade-off, though you still most likely want other sources of Shock, if possible.

Why the Unique Cluster Jewels are Great:

Enables a variety of new builds
One of the best source of Alt Ailments
Ideal for Herald Auto-bombers

How to Get Unique Cluster Jewels:

Delirium boss hunting. Either by doing Delirium Mirror and getting lucky, or with Delirium Orbs. Even 20%, you already have a chance of spawning either Kosis or Omniphobia, but the more orbs you add to the map, the higher the chance of them appearing. At 100%, you have 100% of at least one of them showing up, and often both do.
Simulacrum. Similar to Delirium boss hunting, Simulacrum is one of the best sources for Cluster Jewel farming in general, and the Kosis and Omniphobia show up regularly past wave 10, and past wave 20, you’re almost guaranteed one of them in each wave.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Small_Cluster_Jewel

9 – Grand Spectrum

This set of 9 jewels is entirely unique because it increases its stats based on how many other Grand Spectrum you have socketed into your passive tree as well, up to 3. A long time ago, when you only had 3 G.S., and when they were released, you could socket as many as you wanted, granting you thousands of % increased elemental damage. We aren’t so lucky anymore.

However, GGG added 6 new ones in 3.20, during their Unique Jewel rebalancing, and some of them are borderline insane.

What makes the Grand Spectrum Great:

Flexibility to fix issues in your build in unique ways
Interesting mechanic to use and add up
Enables a ton of build variety

How to Get Grand Spectrum Jewels:

There’s only one way of getting them nowadays: through Izaro’s Treasure and Silver Key chests, in any Labyrinth difficulty. However, it’s extremely rare and hard to find, with an average 1% drop rate from the chests.
However, getting it from the Uber Uber Lab variant Tribute to the Goddess becomes a lot easier, which opens up the Eternal Labyrinth of Fortune. In this Lab, you have about 15~18% chance to get a Grand Spectrum jewel from Silver Key chests.

Here is a convenient table with the values that Grand Spectrum give based on how many G.S. you have socketed, taken from the Wiki:

For more info, click here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Grand_Spectrum

8 – Melding of the Flesh

What was once a staple jewel in any build that used Aegis (due to simplicity) was heavily nerfed. However, it still has its niches, and with Crucible Trees on Shields, it has found renewed strength.

With the substantial drawback of having -4 to -6% Maximum Elemental Resistance and -70 to -80% Elemental Resistance, it’s a hard jewel to seamlessly socket it in. However, the benefit this Jewel brings will outweigh its drawbacks in most cases if you can make it work.

It makes it so all your Maximum Elemental Resistance is equal to your highest Maximum Elemental Resistance.

What makes Melding of the Flesh Great:

One of the best ways of mitigating elemental damage, especially combined with Divine Flesh.
Enables use of Doryani’s Prototype builds, by reducing your Lightning Resistance significantly.
Allows you to avoid certain debuffs targeting only one of the Maximum Resistance.

How to get Melding of the Flesh:

There are really only two ways. The most obvious and fairly easy way is to kill Eater of Worlds. A Lot. It has around a 4% drop rate, so you need to kill him 25 times on average.
The only other way is if you get insanely lucky and drop a Visceral Reliquary Key, which has an even lower drop rate, less than 1% (getting an Ashes is ‘easier’) and then opening it up. It can give you a Foil Copy of any of Eater’s uniques, Melding being one.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Melding_of_the_Flesh

7 – Sublime Vision

This Jewel is one of the more unique and weird jewels introduced in 3.18, and it has a similar concept to Watcher’s Eye, where it comes with several variations and can be divined, but it can’t change its variation.

It’s a jewel that makes it so all auras are disabled except the one the Jewel is ‘allowing’. The exchange for this drawback is that the aura gets a massive boost to aura effect and has an additional Bonus Effect. The Hatred variation lets you Brittle, Anger Scorch, Wrath Sap, etc. All things that are associated with the Aura-variation of the Jewel.

What Makes Sublime Vision Great:

Build Enabling and Defining
Best source of Brittle
Best way of turning immune to anything except Fire and Chaos Damage.

How to get Sublime Vision Jewel:

It’s an Uber Drop, meaning it can only be dropped by the Uber variants of a boss. In this case, we are lucky as it can drop from 2 different fights, Uber Shaper and Uber Uber Elder.
It has around a 4% chance of dropping from both U. Shaper and U.U. Elder.

Here is a table with all the variants and what they can give you:

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Sublime_Vision

6 – Stormshroud

This Jewel is a beauty that got added in 3.20 during the Unique Jewel Rebalancing, and though it doesn’t look like it belongs among these other jewels, it is very much the best source of Elemental Ailment Immunity in the game. Elemental Ailment Immunity is so egregious to get and horrible to play without, and this Jewel solved so many problems people had while creating a lot of crafting opportunities and unique strategies to socket this Jewel and make full use of it.

What makes Stormshroud Great:

Easiest way to get Elemental Ailment Immunity
Opened up new possible builds that would’ve been miserable to play without being Immune to Ailments
Created a lot of crafting opportunities and made new niches for profit.

How to get Stormshroud Jewel:

It can literally drop anywhere in the game. However, with the changes to how rarely unique jewels drop and their internal weighting, this makes for a very rare jewel to find.
You can also get it from Divination cards as well as gambling from Gwennen.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Stormshroud

5 – Watcher’s Eye

Perhaps not the oldest unique Jewel in the game, but certainly the most popular and most well-known, with good reason, the Watcher’s Eye will almost always be able to improve your build, regardless of what it is, as long as you use an aura and have a jewel socket in reach.

Like Sublime Vision, it has special variations that can’t be Divined and changed, and not only that, but it has 2 major variations, depending on where you drop it. If it’s a regular Elder, it only has 2 mods. If it’s from Uber Elder, it can drop with 3 mods. Uber Elder variants are much stronger (though not rarer) because it has an extra mod that can roll something major, like Damage Over Time Multiplier while you have Malevolence.

What makes Watcher’s Eye Great:

Can benefit significantly pretty much all builds in the game
Enables too many mechanics to count
One of the best sources of damage and/or survivability in a single jewel.

How to get Watcher’s Eye:

The 2-mod variant drops from Elder, which you can access with all of his guardian’s fragments, in the Absence of Value and Meaning arena. All 2-mod jewels will have an item level of 85.
The 3-mod variant drops from Uber Elder, which you can access with the 2 fragments that Elder himself drops, the Fragments of Terror and Emptiness, and with the 2 fragments Shaper drops, Fragments of Knowledge and Shape. 3-mod jewels will either have an item level of 86 or 87, depending on whether the fight is an Uber variant or not.
The final way to get the Jewel by naturally dropping it is through The Feared Invitation, where you must kill Chayula, Elder, Shaper, Atziri and Venarius in Maven’s Crucible. Regardless of which Elder variant you killed, it will always drop a 2-mod variant.
Several divination cards can give you Watcher’s Eyes, but the most known and common is The Samurai’s Eye.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Watcher%27s_Eye

4 – Impossible Escape

One of the items created by one of the winners of the 3.17 Boss Kill event, Steelmage, is one of the most build-enabling powerhouse of a jewel that allows you to allocate passives around a specific Keystone in the passive tree.

It has the same concept of variations as W.E.s and Sublime Vision, where you can’t divine to change the Keystone.

What makes Impossible Escape Great:

Grants a ton of power, both defensively and offensively, to the player
Can be used in combination with Timeless Jewels (particularly strong with Glorious Vanity and Elegant Hubris) for easy allocation of notables without travelling.
Enables cross-tree notable allocation without travelling, which creates viability for specific builds.

How to get Impossible Escape:

Similarly to Melding of the Flesh, the only way to get it is by killing one of the Pinnacle Bosses, The Maven. Or her Uber variant.
You can also get it from her Shiny Reliquary Key to get a foil variant of the Jewel.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Maven

3 – Thread of Hope

Introduced back in 3.9, when Sirus first showed up together with his Conquerors, this Jewel has been a staple in most min-maxing builds, and it only grew when the Massive version was introduced when the Uber Pinnacle Bosses arrived, in 3.18.

With every change to the passive tree, this Jewel fluctuates in power and uses, and it can also be used with Timeless Jewels for even more power. The drawback of the Jewel (-10 to -20% all elemental resistances) can also be an advantage for certain builds like Doryani’s Prototype builds (similar to Melding).

What Makes Thread of Hope Great:

Build enabling
Flexibility always evolves with the game itself as the passive tree changes.
One of the best sources of damage and/or defence in the game because of its easy access to notables in the passive tree without travelling to it.
Can also be used to take advantage of its drawback for specific builds.

How to get the Thread of Hope:

Just like Melding of the Flesh and Impossible Escape, it’s a Pinnacle boss drop only, in this case, Sirus, the Awakener of Worlds.
You can only get the Massive Variant by killing Uber Sirus in a zone 85, and it’s still not a guarantee that if you get a jewel, it will be a Massive.
Can drop from Sirus’ Reliquary Key as well, with a foil variant.

For more info, click here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Thread_of_Hope

2 – Timeless Jewels

This set of revolutionary jewels introduced back in 3.7, Legion League, is the pinnacle of optimization and build-enabling jewels. While Forbidden Jewels are arguably stronger in many regards, nothing beats the sheer flexibility and range that Timeless Jewels offer to the game.

Not only do you get 15 new possible Keystones that can be extremely build-defining or enabling – like Tempered by War or Divine Flesh – but they also add a variety of significant attributes and passives that you can’t get anywhere else or with such ease.

You want better flask sustain, they have it. You want to become immortal, they have it. You want to get a button of E.S. based off on your Life, they got it. You want to equip items and not care about attributes requirement? They got that too.

What makes Timeless Jewels Great:

It’s the deepest and most thorough Min-Maxing aspect of a build
Enables a plethora of builds
Provides near-infinite options to improve your build

How to get Timeless Jewels:

You can only get them (besides divination cards specific for it) by completing the Domain of Timeless Conflict, with 2, 3, 4 or 5 Emblems, one of each Army, Karui, Eternal, Vaal, Templar and Maraketh.
The Uber variant of the Domain of Timeless Conflict can also drop, using the Unrelenting Emblems.
You can get them from 2 divination cards, the Peaceful Moments and The Eternal War.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Timeless_Jewel

1 – Forbidden Flesh and Flame Jewels

As mentioned previously, Forbidden Flesh and Flame jewels, the combo that enables you to ‘borrow’ an Ascendancy notable from your fellow starting class, is the strongest.

Arguably, Ascendancy is the highest power creep introduced to the game, and this pair gives it essentially a 25% increase to that power creep, going from 4 total Ascendancies to 5. And not only that, but you can take it from your fellow classes; Deadeyes with a Pathfinder Passive or Juggernauts with Berserkers Passives.

But it is crucial that you MUST have both pairs of the same variant (they also can’t be Divined, just like Watcher’s Eye) to ‘borrow’ the notable.

What makes Forbidden Flesh and Flame Great:

Enables a ton of new builds and merges potentially synergistic notables from 2 different Ascendancies within the same class.
Gives the best bang for your buck as far as damage potential goes.
Uniquely enabling.

How to get Forbidden Flesh and Flame Jewels:

These jewels come directly from Eater of Worlds and Searing Exarch, respectively. They also have a hidden Ascendancy Notable locked behind the Uber variants of these bosses that grant a whole new Ascendancy Notable that does not exist within any of the Ascendancies in the game.
As with the other unique Jewels gained from Pinnacle Bosses, you can also get the foil variants from their Reliquary Keys, the Visceral and the Archive Keys.

For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Forbidden_jewel

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Low-Life Builds (3.21)

Bruno C. — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 02:40:51 +0000

5 – Low Life CoC Ice Nova/Ice Spear Occultist

What a mouthful. But LL Cast on Crit is a staple to PoE, and with the buffs to both Ice Nova and Ice Spear, it’s difficult to say which would be the best and, having played both extensively, I feel that Ice Spear wins out in damage, but Ice Nova wins out in the delightful clearing it has. Both are so similar that you can mostly switch between one another at your leisure.

What Low Life CoC Ice Nova/Spear Excels in:

Surprisingly Tanky
Buttery smooth clearing
Scales supremely well with investment
Looks amazing with MTX
Freezes screens of monsters

Pick Cast on Crit Ice Spear if you Like:

CoC Builds
Clear as fast as you move
Demolish all content

Ice Nova/Spear LL CoC full details:

As a Low Life build, we use Shavrone’s Wrappings, and to further make use of our life pool, we use a Prism Guardian in order to reserve 3 50% auras (Hatred, Grace, and Zealotry), and then still have all of our Mana to reserve other auras and utilities, like Skitterbots, Herald of Ice, or Banners.
If you go with the Ice Spear, I’d recommend getting a +2 Proj helm to enchant, as that is a massive boost to DPS since Ice Spear can shotgun enemies. And with alt-quality Faster Proj, you can get 60% return projectiles, which massively increases your single target!
You can either go with a Cospri’s Malice as your weapon, or you can use a dagger with Vagan Mod to not worry about accuracy at all while also getting a ton of good benefits, like Crit Multi, Crit Chance, +1 to all Cold (levels for spells are the best to increase their damage) and attack speed.
That is important because there are certain thresholds you wanna reach with CoC builds, those being 7.57 and 10.10 attacks per second (with all buffs active). So you need a quick weapon to reach that attack speed threshold (and not go over it), as it will significantly ruin your damage. Aim to get it as close but UNDER the point. As well as getting a ton of CDR, with 52% being required for 10 aps.

For more information, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfNVksHFip8

4 – Manabond Hierophant

While I’m not sure who popularized this build, it has definitely picked up speed this league, primarily because of how strong you can make your Mjolner, if you get lucky and get good Crucible Trees on it. It’s a costly but not immediate process; you can take your time getting to it.

What Makes Manabond Hierophant Excels in:

Massive Lifepools, 13k + ES and 10k Mana (MoM)
Spin to win with CwC Cyclone and Lightning Warp
Can start on a small budget, but the sky is the limit for investment.

Pick Manabond Hierophant if you Like:

Big Numbers on ES and Mana
Play a Spell-based Flicker Strike-esque build
Cosplay as Thor arriving at Wakanda

Manabond Hierophant full details:

This build stands on a few core synergistic unique items, like Mjolner, Prism Guardian (Or Squire if you got the budget), Indigon, and last but absolutely not least, The Ivory Tower. This is the crux of the build, which is essentially a Life, Mana, and Str/Int stacker, all in one go.
You’ll reserve all your Life, so you need to deal with Chaos Damage. Luckily, with Ivory Tower, Chaos Damage damages our Mana first instead of bypassing directly to Life. We still need a Corruscating Elixir to be sure to not die to random damage spikes from chaos damage, especially with Manabond and Indigon spending so much Mana.
And that’s where most of our damage comes from. By using Indigon, our mana consumption gets progressively costlier and costlier, and that translates into direct generic Spell Damage (from Indigon), as well as a More Multiplier from Manabond itself, which gets damage based on how little Mana you have, as well as AoE.

For more information, check this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVVfF-nQZeI

3 – Crit Impending Doom Occultist

This is the sort of build that, while it can be done on a budget, requires a whole different setup, and with essentially only 2 rare item slots, you need a Mageblood to cap out Resists. And that means you can get A LOT of damage from other slots.

What Crit Impending Doom Excels in:

Great one-button clear and single target.
Insanely high damage potential
Exceedingly satisfying to play

Pick Crit Impending Doom if you Like:

Big and dark explosions
Melting bosses with a button
Playstyle similar to Crit Reap

Crit Impending Doom full details:

As I said, this build relies entirely on a Mageblood for the resistance and defences, but this means we get to use all the fun toys because we don’t worry about Res. And, of course, we’re Low Life, so we are using Shavronne’s Wrappings to deal with the Chaos damage.
This build uses a tech created a few leagues ago, the combo of Ralakesh’s Impatience and Malachai’s Loop, combined with Badge of the Brotherhood and Militant Faith’s Inner Conviction Keystone. This means that we, as an Occultist, stack as many Power Charges as possible, which also becomes our maximum Frenzy Charge thanks to BotB. We get 1 PC from Void Battery, 2 from Malachai’s Loop, 1 from being an Occultist, 1 from helmet Corrupted implicit and 3 from the passive tree, for a total of 11 Power Charges and Frenzy Charges.
But there are a couple of caveats. Inner Conviction ruins and removes all sources and ways of generating Frenzy Charges. And Malachai’s Loop makes it so whenever you reach your maximum Power Charges, you lose them all, shocking you in the process. So we circumvent both of these issues with Ralakesh’s Impatience, which makes it so while you’re standing still, your Minimum Charges are equal to your Maximum Charges. And since we’re always standing still when we are casting our spells, we’re always at maximum Power and Frenzy Charge!

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCSfm-zKtBk

2 – Captain Lance’s Righteous Fire Ascendant

Lance’s build is not new and groundbreaking, but the levels he reached on this variant are borderline insane. To most people, reaching over 10,000 ES is considered a lot and, in most cases, more than enough EHP. So when this madman manages to reach over 55k ES, without aurabots or HH buffs, you can’t help but be awed by it. And it’s not a non-functional build and can do pretty much all content in the game.

What Cpt. Lance’s RF Excels in:

Otherworldly tanky, with literally over 55k ES!!!
Respectable single-target damage despite the heavy focus on defences.
Clears delightfully well, like all RF builds do.

Pick Cpt. Lance’s RF if you Like:

Be able to face tank Uber Sirus’ Meteor and laugh it off.
Spending over a mirror worth in gear.
Crafting all your gear

Captain Lance’s Righteous Fire full details:

This build is the embodiment of what PoE stands for. Which is, take a mechanic in the game, a system, and exploit and abuse it as hard as possible, and squeeze it for as much as you can, and you just might be able to create a build out of it. And that’s Lance’s whole ideology for his builds, using a few core pieces that spark his interest.
And in this case, it was the possibility of stacking as much Life as possible and then converting all that Life into ES, by using The Ivory Tower, which grants 30 ES per 100 reserved Life. Essentially a 10:3 conversion rate. While this might not seem much, you can scale Energy Shield a lot higher by stacking as much intelligence as possible, which grants 1% ES per 5 Int.
And because we get so much ES and base Life (15k), our Righteous Fire deals a lot of damage as it scales based on both numbers. So the tankier we get, the more damage we deal in this perfectly balanced symmetry.

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYY5Cg8z2I&t=495s

1 – Explody Devouring Totem Pathfinder

This is a build that only exists because of Crucible League. It’s based on a mod on Weapon Crucible trees that states, “Totems explode on Death, dealing 200~600% (depends on roll and weapon type) of their Life as Physical damage around them”. This doesn’t look like much until you start considering a few implications surrounding poison with this mechanic.

What Explody Devouring Totem Excels in:

Insanely tanky, nigh immortal in mapping
Can reach Poison DoT Cap with nearly no investment.
Can do all content, including Uber Bosses, with only a single offensive item.
Flaskfinder is broken

Pick Explody Devouring Totems if you like:

Trap Playstyle (yes. Totems and Traps)
Janky and weird-looking builds
Seeing bosses melt in front of your eyes
Poison Prolif

Explody Devouring Totems full details:

You might be wondering what traps have to do with this. The thing is, because when totems are replaced, they are considered ‘dying’. You get more explosions if you keep summoning more totems at once. And with traps, you can throw over 8 traps per throw(with 23 maximum traps), and each can summon 2 to 3 totems (depending on mastery and support gems). However, since your maximum totem limit is still 1 (or 2 if you’re using Multiple Totems), you are essentially summoning and ‘killing’ over 40 Totems in just a few trap throws.
And you can scale your totem life quite a bit, reaching easily over 12k Life per totem. So you multiply those 12k by the 600% multiplier from the Crucible Notable and then by 40 totems(average), and you get an insane amount of BASE physical damage, which can get scaled further with Phys Added as Chaos, all of which accounts for your Poison damage.
As we are a pathfinder, we get to use broken flasks and become even tankier, through the use of Petrified Blood, which both helps with mana sustain of the traps (the hardest thing to balance in this build) and by making us tankier, even if we’re ‘low life’, as well as the most broken flask in existence, Progenesis, buffed even higher by all our flask effect. That, combined with triple Elemental Flasks and Lightning Coil, makes us near immortal to anything.

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa0jgiuGGpU

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Crucible Builds (3.21)

Bruno C. — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 02:40:48 +0000

5 – Goratha’s Boneshatter Juggernaut

One of the last bastions of “true melee”, Boneshatter is a fairly notorious skill for the previous abuse cases with duration, immortality, and Mantra of Flames stacking indefinitely. Though most of it got removed or tuned down, the skill remains a staple for STRONK melee satisfaction that is sorely lacking in PoE nowadays. And despite all the whining from players, it’s one of the most played skills in the game, despite being melee.

What Boneshatter Excels in:

Unbelievably tanky
Ridiculously high damage for a melee, chonky character
Respectable clearing, though click intense
True melee

Pick Boneshatter if you Like:

Going back to the true Melee Roots
Hit and stun enemies on the head multiple times, traumatizing them, and yourself
Self-damaging builds that deal more damage the more they hurt themselves.

Boneshatter full details:

Boneshatter works because it gets increasingly more damage based on your Trauma Stacks. And with Divergent Boneshatter, you also gain 1% attack speed per Trauma. Which then gets scaled by Ashes of the Stars, doubling that effect. And when you can easily reach over 200 stacks of Trauma, this is a massive amount of damage.
It doesn’t come without a cost, though, and it’s why almost entirely, Boneshatter builds are relegated to being Juggernauts, with a few exceptions. For each Trauma stack you have, you take increasingly more damage, reaching over 300 Trauma damage per Trauma each time you gain a Trauma Stack.
As such, you need insane levels of Physical damage mitigation through armour, generic PDR, or even Transcendence. And that’s why Jugg is so great at dealing with that because it is by far the tankiest class in the game for Physical damage.

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u86_1qW8AZQ

4 – Goratha’s Lightning Arrow Champion

Goratha is famous for making strong starting builds that can do all content on a budget and SSF. This one is no exception, and his build guide is so thorough that you won’t feel lost at any point. He takes a different spin to the ‘Bow League’, and instead of going Deadeye like most did, he went with the tanky monster that is Champion.

What Goratha’s Lightning Arrow Champion Excels in:

Fantastic Clearing
Super Tanky
Great single target
Perfect for League Starting

Pick Goratha’s Lightning Arrow Champion if you Like:

Bow playstyle
Zooming but also taking a punch without keeling over
So many projectiles on the screen you can barely see

Gorathat’s Lightning Arrow full details:

The first thing you want, and the most important one, is a strong bow. You want a Deafening Essence of Wrath, preferably on a Fractured Bow. Thicket is the best base (you don’t care about going crit with this variant). Thanks to Crucible Trees, you want to go for the highest eDPS possible, and it’s quite easy to reach over 1200 eDPS.
As I said, we aren’t going crit, so we use the Precise Technique Keystone. As such, you want to make sure you have more Accuracy than Life values to use the 40% More Attack damage. That’s quite easy to do while levelling, and will carry on being easy as long as you pay attention to it.
The endgame of this build uses the reworked Abyss uniques, Shroud of the Lightless and Bubonic Trail, to gain a lot of life, elemental penetration, and Mana Reservation Efficiency. This allows you to allocate a 3rd 50% aura (Anger or Wrath) for even more damage.

For more information, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjZqVx1-KQ

3 – Von Vikton’s Ice Spear Totems Hierophant

Now this a build made for low budget that can scale insanely high with some minor-ish investment and almost plays by itself. It’s not the best fit for everyone since Totem playstyle is an acquired taste, but it can do all content easily if you know what you’re doing.

What Ice Spear Totems Excels in:

Great to League Start
Insane single Target damage
Simple to play, but not for everyone
Clears rather well
Can do all content in the game, including Uber bosses.

Pick Ice Spear Totems if you Like:

Totem playstyle
Dealing dozens and dozens of millions of damage
Hiding in a corner while your totems do your dirty work

Ice Spear Totems Hierophant full details:

This build makes excellent use of one of the new uniques added in patch 3.20, the Anathema ring, so your curse limit equals your maximum Power Charges. And because we’re a Hierophant, we quickly get 4 Power Charges, which is a simple and elegant fix to stacking as many curses as possible.
And that is quite impactful because of the changes GGG made surrounding curses and how they are no longer reduced in effect against bosses, even if numerically, they’ve been mostly ‘nerfed’. So Anathema allows us to use Frostbite, Elemental Weakness, Sniper’s Mark and a long-forgotten curse that rose in popularity, Punishment, for massive extra damage against enemies at low life.
We’re also making use of both Coward’s Legacy (the biggest bulk of single expense, besides the helmet with Ice Spear Enchant, which is massive for DPS) in combination with Self-Flagelation and Soul Mantle, which not only grants us an extra totem and a 7th link to our primary skill but also grants over 160% increased damage(up to 20% per curse on us), as well as enabling Pain Attunement for ‘free’. All you need to do is get curse effect reduction on yourself.

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR_WXjmfeb4

2 – Zizaran’s Poison Artillery Ballista Pathfinder

Now this a surprise of a build that no one really expected to be this good, but it took the meta by its horns thanks to Ziz’s prowess and popularity. It’s a solid build that builds upon a skill already somewhat notorious for great league-starting and melting bosses, but not everyone was too fond of for one reason or another. However, this requires a hard-to-get Crucible Passive to work, but when you have it, it’s glorious.

What Zizaran’s Poison Artillery Ballista Excels in:

Unique build pathing
Good clearing with Ballistas
Awesome single-target damage with correctly set up builds.
Quite Tanky with 100% Flask uptime

Pick Zizaran’s Poison Artillery Ballista if you Like:

Ballista playstyle
Poison with PF (prolif)
Easy-to-play builds

Zizaran’s Poison Artillery Ballista full details:

This build revolves around a specific Crucible passive tree that allows all damage from Artillery Ballista and Blast Rain to Poison, and 25% of the time, those poisons will deal 100% more poison Damage. So this essentially reads as 25% more Poison Damage.
The caveat is that though ALL damage CAN poison, it doesn’t mean it will. So you still need a 100% chance to poison. However, because All damage CAN poison, you can scale Elemental Damage (or Physical) from all gear and bow, getting insane 1200eDPS + bows, which will feed into the poison at 25% more value than before.
We also use a cool tech from the last league, Wilma’s Requittal, that makes it so all of your cast speed also applies as Attack Speed. So this means that buffs like Onslaught (which can be massively increased by Flask Effect from Pathfinder by using a Silver Flask) that grants 20% MS/AS/CS, will double the amount of Attack speed it provides. Other things like Frenzy Charges work the same, and that’s a massive boost to damage since poison builds love stacking as much attack speed as possible.

For more information, check here: https://youtu.be/AYwDZOGRpJw

1 – Chaos Strength Stacking Power Siphon/Kinetic Blast Berserker

If you’re Jeff Bezos, this is the sort of build you can sink your teeth in and spend as much as you want, and it will scale infinitely with investment, reaching over 200 million DPS.

What Chaos Strength Stacking PS/KB Excels in:

Ludicrous amounts of damage
Fantastic Clearing
Amazing single target
Tanky and essentially immortal, as nothing can kill you since it’s already dead.

Pick Chaos Strength Stacking PS/KB if you Like:

Min-maxing to your heart’s content.
Attribute Stacking builds
Destroying whole screens of mobs within the blink of an eye
Have Ubers Per Second amount of damage!

Chaos Strength Stacking PS/KB full details:

As with all Chaos Strength Stacking builds, they revolve around Battlemage’s Cry, The Iron Fortress, Iron Will, and of course, Replica Alberon’s Warpath, for its insane amount of Added Flat Chaos, Increased % Attack Damage, and all the other benefits from stacking Strength.
You want the strongest ring possible, and if you can afford it, a Kalandra’s Touch to mirror your ring, so you don’t have to craft two!
It’s the sort of build where the Mageblood isn’t even the most challenging piece to acquire, so it’s perfect for whoever wants a long-term project and a massive currency sink, as it will gobble up your Divines like no one’s business.
We use two attack setups, one for Clearing, Kinetic Blast, and a powerful pseudo-8 link pair of Gloves, with Power Siphon in there, for our single target.

For more information, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMS0jpyZVps

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"Meta builds in Path of Exile are like finely crafted masterpieces—powerful, precise, and capable of turning the game into your personal canvas of destruction!

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[Top 15] Best ARPGs For PC

Alina Lazarte — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 00:07:49 +0000

15. Victor Vran - 2015 (PC / PS4 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch)

Become the demon hunter. One of the last guardians of the mortal race. Victor Vran: a member of the Hunters Order and the only one possessing demonic powers. Play as the most powerful customizable demon hunter. Choose from a big variety of weapons, items, suits, powers, and faith cards. Help the inhabitants of Zagoravia to clean the demon infestation. Play solo or with friends and become the best version of Victor.

Choose this game if you like...

Diablo-like games. Although is not the same, it has a similar atmosphere and aesthetic.
Addictive games. Be careful, you might prefer it over reality.
Van Helsing. The story and Victor Vran himself are similar to Van Helsing's concept.

Fun factor score: 100/100

Handsome Victor Vran in a battle with a necromancer. An ordinary night in Victor’s life.

14. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - 2013 (PC / PS4 / XBOX)

Dive into the gothic-noir and unforgettable realm of Borgovia. Play as Van Helsing, the legendary monster hunter. Pick your weapons and embark on a dark adventure in the company of charming Lady Katarina. A mad scientist is threatening the peace among mortals and monsters. Solve the city conflict and help those who are vulnerable. But keep this in mind: trust nobody.

Choose this game if you like...

Unique stories. This game has a great story to follow.
Acid humor and irony. You get a lot of it.
Alchemy, forging, and building. There is more behind The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing to be discovered. It's quite complex but highly entertaining and rewarding.

Fun factor score: 90/100

Here is a battle against a giant Behemoth. The creature looks bizarre, its design is oddly peculiar.

13. Torchlight 2 - 2012 (PC / PS4 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch)

Experience the triumphant comeback of Torchlight! The acclaimed action open-world RPG made its grand return, offering a bigger and more impressive adventure. Torchlight II immerses you in its unique and energetic realm, teeming with ferocious creatures, abundant riches, and mysterious enigmas. Once again, you hold the destiny of the world in your hands.

Choose this game if you like...

Mods. This game is compatible with Steam Workshop. Choose among thousands of mods and adapt the game as you, please. You can also use GUTS, the game's editor to create and share your creations with the world.
Steampunk cartoonish worlds.
Pets. Our character has a cool pet. Each pet is great in its way and makes you want to have them all.

Fun factor score: 90/100

The fact that the characters have unique pets is one of my favorite things in the world. This little feline friend is a beautiful companion. All of them are wonderful.

12. Grim Dawn - 2016 (PC / XBOX)

Step into a fantasy realm on the verge of apocalypse. A place where humanity teeters on the edge of annihilation. Grim Dawn presents intricate character progression. A vast array of distinctive collectible items. The art of crafting, and quests that offer choices with impactful outcomes. This game has over 200 enemy heroes and bosses. It also has 20+ hidden areas, gaps, and locked doors. You'll have to come up with a solution to several obstacles. Enjoy the dark atmosphere of the dungeons and the bloody battles!

Choose this game if you like...

Complex RPG mechanics. This game has many features designed to dedicate a lot of time to the game.
Great lore.
Dark fantasy. Grim Dawn has an impressive world filled with death and creatures trying to kill you. It also has survival mechanics, which makes it quite addictive.

Fun factor score: 90/100

Surely this scene is worthy of the best fans. Look at this crazy dark dungeon, the demonic energies can be felt through the screen.

11. Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor-Martyr - 2017 (PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBOX)

Immerse yourself in the open world of Caligari. A grim place overrun by the forces of Chaos that you must face. Eradicate the impure forces with the formidable agents of the Imperium of Man. W40k: Inquisitor – Martyr introduces various classes of the Inquisition, dedicated to executing the Emperor's divine decree. Choose between four playable classes: Psyker, Crusader, Assassin, and the Tech-Adept. Enjoy this masterpiece in a cooperative campaign or by yourself.

Choose this game if you like...

Grim futuristic intense action. This world is set in the future and enemies are alien creatures.
Sandbox games. This world keeps expanding with regular updates. And it also adds to the story through Global Events and Chapters.
Astronomy. In WA40k you can explore the Star Map. Visit other solar systems, planets, and other impressive places.

Fun factor score: 100/100

Look at this immense starship. The amount of detail in this mere image is incredible, the more you look the better it gets. An absolute beauty.

10. Last Epoch - 2019 (PC)

Last Epoch is an action, hack-and-slash game set in the fantasy lands of Eterra. Your mission thrusts you into a desolate future. Your objective is to reshape this grim future by unraveling the mysteries of the past. Choose over 15 classes, masteries, and over 120 skills with their augment tree to learn. This gives you extensive freedom to shape your preferred playstyle. Plus you can craft items and enjoy the randomized loot system. Enjoy with friends in multiplayer mode or play by yourself. For the most daring players, there are hardcore challenges to test your mettle in various ways

Choose this game if you like…

Games that are easy to learn yet challenging to master.
Addictive games. Prepare to be drawn back to Eterra time and time again.
Dark fantasy.

Fun factor score: 90/100

These are the fifteen classes. In the middle are the base classes that unlock another three subclasses.

9. Path Of Exile - 2013 (PC / PS4 / XBOX)

Step into the sinister continent of Wraeclast. A dark place where you'll have to survive. Fight to gain the strength needed for vengeance. Become the strongest and defeat those who have betrayed you. Crafted by hardcore gamers, Path of Exile is an online ARPG that unfolds in a dark and fantastical realm. This game has unlimited character customization. You can create and personalize numerous sets of skills. Each character has its type of quest. You also get to build your secret shelter. Path of Exile has one of the best crafting systems. The game earned the community's respect. Best part? It's free!

Choose this game if you like...

Crafting. This game is one of the best crafting systems and you're going to love it.
Dark fantasy. And the battles are pretty bloody. The whole game design is a beauty.
Spending time on a single game. Path of Exile requires lots of time. It's not made for casual players.

Fun factor score: 100/100

A massive demonic creature with a massive hammer on fire. But wait, in the game you get to battle much more impressive bosses.

8. Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin - 2022 (PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBOX)

This title is an intense action RPG that introduces a fresh direction to the beloved Final Fantasy series. Prepare yourself for the most daring and unforgiving battles ever seen. The game features distinguished locations and monsters from the Final Fantasy series. Your goal is to destroy chaos. As simple and complicated as it sounds. Get ready to become Jack. A man, willing to sacrifice it all to destroy chaos.

Choose this game if you like...

Dark fantasy. This game was designed as an interpretation of the setting for the original Final Fantasy game.
Linear stories. You already know how it works, one character has to follow the quests and defeat a final boss. This one is spectacular.
Complex gameplay. Stranger of Paradise comes with a hardcore difficulty. If you like to master skills, this one is a great choice.

Fun factor score: 100/100

Let me introduce you to Kraken. The master of water. He’s now about to kill you.

7. Undecember - 2022 (PC / Android / iOS)

Twelve divine beings emerged from the void and lived a calm life with their descendants. Until the Evil God Serpens was born.

Undecember offers players the ability to exceed traditional skill boundaries by continuously combining a wide range of Skill and Link Runes. Embark on the journey of a Rune Hunter and immerse yourself in the gratifying process of farming and personal growth. This game has five game modes: Acts - Chaos Dungeon - Boss Raid - Crusade of Glory - Guild. Give them a try!

Choose this game if you like...

HACK N SLASH. The progression system is tied to defeating enemies.
Exploring dungeons and looting.
Pay-to-win. Sadly, this game is pay-to-win but it offers decent free gameplay.

Fun factor score: 70/100

A group of worshipers kneeling over an artifact. A place where common people wouldn’t be.

6. Darksiders Genesis - 2019 (PC / PS4 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch)

The game takes place before the events depicted in the original Darksiders game. It introduces the fourth and final horseman, Strife. Now, War and Strife have a new important assignment. The macabre demon king Lucifer has been trying to break the Balance. They must hunt and stop him. Fight hordes of demons and angels that step in your way.

It also introduces cooperative gameplay in the franchise's history.

Choose this game if you like...

Frenetic battlefield. There are a lot of things to dodge.
Collecting. The growth system relies on collecting items, abilities, weapons, creatures, and others.
Hack n Slash, although it is much more than just that. It's still one of the strongest styles.

Fun factor score: 90/100

This image shows marvelous artwork. A precious design. They took good care of the details.

5. Hyper Light Drifter - 2016 (PC / PS4 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch / iOS)

Embark on a captivating journey through a savage world. A world in ruins brimming with perils and forgotten technologies. Become a drifter. Those who collect forgotten knowledge, technologies, and stories. But wait, is not that easy. You have an illness and you must find the cure. Moved by this purpose, you will travel through a stunning world. Designed in 16-bit, this game is carefully hand-crafted. You won't regret it if you love a good visual.

Choose this game if you like...

Short adventures. The game can take between 5 to 6 hours to complete.
Amazing soundtrack.
Atmospheric games. It has a very satisfying atmosphere.

Fun factor score: 90/100

This incredible picture is an extraction of the trailer. Just a glimpse at what the game offers.

4. Death's Door - 2021 (PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch / Project xCloud)

The task of collecting, protecting souls, and adhering to a strict schedule it's an honorable occupation. You are a crow whose assigned soul has been Things take an exciting turn when the soul assigned to you is unexpectedly pilfered. You find yourself compelled to pursue the thief. Death's Door takes place in a realm unaffected by mortality. Explore this dark place and discover the secrets behind the Crows and the Doors.

Choose this game if you like...

Punish and reward systems.
Mystery. The game's main quest is to solve a few mysteries. It has challenging puzzles to solve and it's a maze-like game.
Great atmospheres. This game is a cutie. It offers a fantastic soundtrack and visuals.

Fun factor score: 90/100

Notice how small the crow is in comparison to the rest of the picture. The art chosen for the design of this game is amazing and unique.

3. Lost Ark - 2019 (PC / GeForce Now)

Lost Ark has a sprawling open world, rich in adventure. It encompasses seven distinct continents to explore. Each boasts its own array of adversaries, dungeons, and captivating narratives. This massively multiplayer game immerses players in a colossal realm. A place filled with exciting trials. With its visually stunning landscapes permeated by magic and grandeur, Lost Ark creates a vibrant and deeply immersive environment. Choose your class, master your skills, and plunge headlong into thrilling battles.

Choose this game if you like...

Fast-paced combat style.
Complex gameplay and dungeon crawlers.
Mastering characters. In Lost Ark, there are plenty of combinations to try. And each enemy is different from the other.

Fun factor score: 90/100

This is one of the many enemies spread around the world of Lost Ark. He looks thundering.

2. Bloodborne - 2015 (PS4)

An ancient city has been cursed with a strange illness. Yharnam streets have been infested by the disease. This ruined place needs a savior. For its only danger, death, and madness reigning the streets. Explore this obscure gothic world and discover its morbid secrets to survive.

Choose this game if you like...

Strategy. The combat requires strategy. Be smart.
Procedurally generated dungeons. In this place, there is a vast network of underground ruins to explore.
Macabre. Bloodborne is a very dark title.

Fun factor score: 100/100

I just loved how perfectly dark this illustration is. Every single pixel is a precious detail. And the blood on the handkerchief with the elegant suit. Majestic.

1. Diablo 4 - 2023 (PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBOX)

The most recent release in this list. Diablo 4 is set in Sanctuary. A land devastated by war and chaos. The eternal conflict between the celestial realm and the infernal domain intensifies. Lilith is coming back to hunt the peace of Sanctuary. Prepare to vanquish hordes of unrelenting demons. Master your skills and use unique powers. Navigate through nightmarish dungeons, and acquire legendary treasures of unparalleled might. Will you be able to become its savior?

Choose this game if you like...

Demonic mythology and dark fantasy.
Dungeon crawlers. As you might know, Diablo's map contains thousands of dungeons to explore.
Online open-world. Some battles will require more than a single player to be victorious.

Fun factor score: 100/100

I present to you Inarius. Former archangel of the High Heavens. Responsible for the creation of Sanctuary and the Nephalem.

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[Top 15] Best From Action RPGs (Ranked Fun To Most Fun)

UmutCeylan — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 11:56:15 +0000

What Are The Most Fun Action RPGs?

Action RPGs are fun and brutal. Developers usually put in dozens of hours of content for every player to enjoy and get immersed in the role-playing experience.

What is difference between an RPG and an ARPG? ARPGs are usually a little bit more focused on combat rather than dialogue and exploration; however, this doesn't mean that you will have no dialogue or a quality story. Every game in this list has those, and a fair bit of it.

So read on to find out about what the ARPGs are, in my opinion of course.

15. Cyberpunk 2077

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjF9GgrY9c0&ab_channel=Cyberpunk2077

While it wasn’t the game the world wanted from CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077 still offers a quality role-playing experience; well, mostly. Released in 2020, you play the protagonist that resides in the Night City, the neon-colored, futuristic city of the future. Crime, corruption, and all kinds of other crime are commonplace in Night City. You have to trudge through all these things to fix the problem that you may have with a certain Keanu Reeves lodged into your head.

The graphics of the game are the best yet. Even though optimization isn’t there yet, if you have a beefy computer, you can experience Night City with all its glory from its next-gen texturing to breathtaking RTX. The gun mechanics are fun, customization is there for your character, skills, and weapons. Even though the role-playing mechanics were not as detailed and in-depth as people expected, there is still a lot of moral quandaries in the game, and you may have to make difficult decisions in your journey in Night City.

14. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LA68CT7dvg&ab_channel=Zephyr

Here it is. Some people love it, some people hate it. However, no one can deny the impact of Skyrim on the RPG games that has been released after it. Released in 2011 by Bethesda Game Studios, you construct your character and traverse through the land of Skyrim as you slowly discover that you possess the powers to save this realm from devastation. There are countless enemies that will try to stop you, from elves to dragons. With countless dungeons and different factions that can help you shape your character; this game is a must-play for RPG lovers.

Bethesda has re-released the game about a million times by now. You can find the new The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Mega OMG GOTY Special Platinum New-gen Remastered Remake in the nearest BestBuy. However, if you are keen on modding, and this game has a really big modding community, you might want to play the version that is compatible with those mods. The modding community is on the same level as Minecraft, and you can completely change the game into something new by downloading dozens of mods. So, it is fair to say that even after your 100th playthrough, you will still find new things to do in this game, with our without mods.

13. Dark Souls 3

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwioBJ3-lk&ab_channel=Shirrako

Alright, I don’t want to riddle this list with From Software titles, so I’m just going to stop myself at just one game. Dark Souls III is one of those games that carry the legacy of Dark Souls 1 on its shoulders. The games are difficult, with new, innovative mechanics. Released in 2016 by From Software, the game only helped cement the legacy of From Software and the quality of their games. You play as the Ashen One. Your goal is to bring back the Lords of Cinder to light the fire that keeps the kingdom of Lothric from turning inside-out, literally. And I mean literally. You will find out what that means as you progress through the game.

The game is immensely fun but difficult. You will get killed by the same enemy a few dozen times, don’t worry, that is by design. You have hundreds of armor pieces and weapons to customize your character's abilities and strengths. Collect souls and use them to level up different attributes to give yourself an edge, however small of an edge it may be. Pick this game up, it will definitely be worth your while.

12. Borderlands 2

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxHMcDTr7g4&ab_channel=Throneful

Released in 2012 after the success of Borderlands 1 by Gearbox Software and published by 2K games, Borderlands 2 offers something integral to ARPGs: fun. With enjoyable shooting mechanics, you can go through hordes of enemies with thousands; yes, thousands, of weapons choices which are on the chart from really fun to OMG-I-love-this-game fun. As the vault has opened up in Borderlands 1 and revealed other vaults in different planets, you play as vault hunters looking for the vault on your planet. With multiple characters that are amazingly fun to interact with and talk to, a lot of different monsters, companies, and vagabonds will try to stop you in your journey. Your best answer? Shooting.

The game is quirky, and fast on its feet. If you think you are too old for the humor, the game pulls a fast one on you and you catch yourself laughing. The writing is superb, absurd, and made to be fun. Also, the game has good New Game+ mechanics and end game bosses and raids, which keeps the G in RPG. The looting mechanic and the rarity of the guns and how those mechanics are constructed might be the best in business. And you can even play co-op! A must-try.

11. Dying Light 2 Stay Human

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ZQjpMxmV0&ab_channel=SwiftyUnknown

Released in 2022 by Techland, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is a case study of how it could possibly be this fun to go through hordes of zombies. Well, "go through" has two meanings here. You can grab a gun and try to kill every single one, but that might not go too well for you. With state-of-the-art parkour mechanics, you can now fulfill your fantasy of being much faster than brainless zombies. The game’s focus is on survival and going through the city of Villedor to fulfill your goals will be very difficult with the hordes of zombies at every corner and the people that will try to stop or hinder you; or worse.

This might be the best parkour game out there. While it doesn’t look like it, the game is really fast-paced, and you can traverse the city any way you want. You can spend a good amount of your time in Dying Light 2 on the roofs and the sides of buildings, never really going down to the ground where most of the zombies reside. The game’s looting system and engaging story are also one that keeps you on your toes and is a page-turner. Frame-turner? Pixel-turner? I don’t know. Give it a try though, it’s really, really fun.

10. Tyranny

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpt-Lccd-BY&ab_channel=Lacry

Ok, what counts as an Action RPG? If I didn’t include a high-quality Classic RPG here that can also be classified as an Action RPG, many great games would lose their highly deserved spots on this list. Tyranny, released in 2016 by Obsidian Entertainment is an RPG that follows in the footsteps of the classic RPG giants like Baldur’s Gate. The game is difficult and unforgiving, and even when you get a grip on combat, the decisions you need to make always leave you in a difficult spot. The world of Terratus has two factions working together to conquer the land; however, only the most successful faction will gain authority over the land, and you need to choose your side in this battle.

The game is not as long as games like Pillars of Eternity, but the tightly written lore and over-achieving text that is worth a few novels and is literally long as a series of novels more than make up for it. You can choose between the Disfavored or the Scarlet Chorus, choose none of them, or choose to overthrow everything. You can choose to be fair and kind, or an absolute menace to everything and everyone around you. You can have several companions that will follow you throughout the game and have their own questlines and additions. The game is rich and replayable, and every choice matters, some way or another.

9. Nier: Automata

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd3BnRJxaM&ab_channel=RajmanGamingHD

Released by PlatinumGames in 2017, Nier: Automata is absolutely insane. In the world of Nier, you can expect a convoluted and mind-blowing story with 4th wall breaking elements and an innovative game design with everything you love about RPGs that come out of Japan. Playing as both 2B and 9S, you have to complete quests to clear out the mechanical threats for the Resistance. The game is fast-paced with a lot of customization for innovative gameplay and better combat.

The game is long and once it got you in its grasp, you cannot let go until you are done with it. The first playthrough is with 2B, the main protagonist and the character you see at every poster for the game. To follow the extreme story of Nier: Automata, you might want to play or read about the first game: Nier. However, you can still enjoy a lot of the game without playing the first game, which is quite a lot different than this one.

8. Hades

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2b7GGWNz54&ab_channel=SilentLongplays

Hades is also not a regular game for the ARPG genre. Well, it has action, and role-playing, so why not? Hades has been developed by Supergiant Games and released in 2020. It took the world by storm when it first came out. While we saw other rogue-like games that iterate on the same short gameplay cycle these games usually have, meaning that you play the same, short game that takes less than an hour every time, but the game iterates, changes, and upgrades as you play more. Your main goal as Zagreus is to run away from your father Hades and return to the surface, away from the Underworld. To do this, you need to slash through Hades’ minions with amazingly fun weapons and skills.

As you die, the game resets, sending you back to the starting point. However, some things you collect and some of your interactions change the story and the gameplay. You open new weapons, and skills, and get stronger altogether. Will you be able to reach the surface with the help of the Gods of Olympus, or will you give up and be content with staying in the Underworld? And what will happen when you reach the surface to find your mother?

7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou6UsEf1J_o&ab_channel=EncryptedDuck

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been released in 2017 by Nintendo. One of the release titles for the Nintendo Switch, the game slashed through the hearts of all the critics and Nintendo-lovers alike. You will go through Hyrule as Link and slash through enemies, do puzzles, and explore the ground-breaking game design and gameplay Nintendo is known for.

The world is vast and absolutely open. When we say, “open world”, we know that we might have to progress a little bit before some things are open to us. However, in Breath of the Wild, you can simply go to the endgame from the moment you start it up. The game seemingly gives complete control to you to shape your destiny and have all the fun you can.

6. Fallout: New Vegas

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHIlLqgZAk&ab_channel=Lacry

Released in 2010 by Bethesda, and developed by Obsidian, Fallout: New Vegas is the epitome of a “choose-your-own-path” RPG that we all love to see. When Cyberpunk 2077 was getting a lot of hype before its release, a lot of people made parallels to Fallout: New Vegas in its game design, and role playing mechanics. You are in New Vegas in the year 2281. The nuclear fallout has made it so that many things did not survive on the surface, or survived too much. You are a courier for Mojave Express that was betrayed, and you seek revenge, or you don’t, it's up to you.

The game is a free-for-all. With a single decision, you can kill dozens of people, destroy cities, and break up factions. After the linear Fallout 3, the original developers of Fallout 1 and 2 came back to create Fallout: New Vegas and its branching-path filled story filled to the brim with twists, goofs, and difficult decisions. Play your character and explore the vast deadlands of New Vegas. Just try to not venture too far, as things have been laying in these toxic vast lands for too long, waiting for an unfortunate soul to come their way.

5. Diablo 3

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEfEDilthg&ab_channel=ZephyrMantis

Oh, here it is. The successor to Diablo 2. Released by Blizzard in 2012, the game has been long awaited by all ARPG fans around the world. With a top-down view, you get the classic Diablo experience of fighting through hordes of enemies that spawned from the pits of hell to get that good loot. Yeah, that good loot: the thing we crave as we farm for hours. Playing as the Nephalem, you arrive in New Tristam to explore a prophecy that can lead to the return of something ominous, something world-ending, straight from the belly of the hellfire beneath our feet.

You go around, doing quests and killing thousands of enemies using your set of skills. You can choose between classes such as the Barbarian, the Wizard, the Demon Hunter, the Necromancer, and other classes that fit your playstyle. You loot the corpses of your enemies to get loot and become even stronger, so you can fight against the terrifying bosses and the dungeons the game will throw at you. With the anticipation of Diablo 4 releasing in 2023, it might be a good idea to give this one a try to freshen up on your demon-slaying skills.

4. God of War

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRMX9Rzq1AA&ab_channel=Gamer%27sLittlePl...

Released as a soft reboot for the classic God of War series we all know and love, God of War 2018 has changed the formula a bit. Rather than the hack-and-slash we all know, God of War gives us a deeply bonding and intriguing story with Action RPG elements in a carefully designed world. Instead of Greek Mythology, we delve into Norse Mythology. As Kratos, our goal is to spread the ashes of our deceased wife to the highest peak in the realm, with our son, Atreus. However, that may not be as easy as one would think at first.

The game looks amazing and plays even better. You have the Leviathan Axe as your new weapon, which you can throw, do combos with, and use to slash through enemies as you explore the different realms of the Norse Mythology. There are puzzles to solve, enemies to beat, and secrets to uncover. You might come into contact with some gods along the way, so the best bet is to tread carefully. Pick this game up; like, pick it up, please. It’s an amazing experience with infinitely more maturity than we’ve seen with the previous titles.

3. Path of Exile

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3vNHmXf1Y&ab_channel=Throneful

In my opinion, this is the best experience an MMO ARPG can give you. Path of Exile, released in 2013 by Grinding Gear Games, is a top-down gameplay experience not unlike Diablo 3. However, I would argue that it is much more than that. Playing as an exile that has been cast to Wraeclast for your crimes, you are determined to come back to Oriath to seek revenge and find out more about the dark world you live in, discovering countless dark secrets along the way.

The game is fun and addicting, maybe too addicting, honestly. Looting and overall gear are everything, and the game has the most extensive and over-the-top skill tree I have ever seen. Like, look it up. It is an actual skill “tree”. You probably can count every leaf individually. You can customize your character with unique skills and create a different character that plays completely differently every playthrough. The game has a new expansion around every 3 months which completely resets the game and adds new content, which keeps things fresh. There is a living economy inside the game and the MMO experience is there, for sure. With extensive minigames and a highly detailed endgame with more content than you can imagine, no wonder people can easily dump more than 1000 hours into the game.

2. Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn_taKva-AQ&ab_channel=Lacry

Witcher 3, released in 2015 by CD Projekt Red, has created a new era for RPGs. Things like rich stories, quality graphics, and great voice acting, along with branching paths in the story have never been the same after the release of this masterpiece. With more than 100 hours of content, the game never feels old or stale. Playing as Geralt, you are tasked with finding Emperor Emhyr’s daughter, Cirilla. To do so, you will need to interact with the dark and unrelenting world of the Continent, filled with monsters or people that are even worse than those monsters.

The “RPG” in ARPG really shows in this game. While the combat system is nothing to write home about, the story is. The dialogues are extensive, and as you complete contracts as a Witcher, tasked with killing monsters for the right pay, you can choose the outcome of a lot of people, depending on your morals and the character you are playing as. You can follow the main story or go into the depths of the world and its intricately designed side quests, with two amazing DLCs to boot. One of the most integral ARPG experiences, I cannot recommend this game enough.

1. Bloodborne

Watch the gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJyc-sD1DiY&ab_channel=SourceSpy91

Okay, I lied. There is another From Software game in the list, and it is at the top of the list. Bloodborne, released in 2015 by From Software for the PlayStation 4 is, in my opinion, the very best video game ever made, at least from the ones I’ve played. You play as a nameless hunter, coming into Yharnam for an unknown reason. Probably the unluckiest chap, you choose the time to come into Yharnam in the night of the hunt. Tonight, beasts of every caliber will come out from the shadows to terrorize the entire place; and your job is to hunt them while exploring this nightmare you’ve found yourself in.

The game is difficult, but you already know that. Anyone who ever played a From Software game knows the infamy these games have. You will die to the same boss a few dozen times, but as your instincts sharpen, you become a more effective hunter and will overcome your prey in the end. Gothic roofs fill the horizon and as you progress, you will realize that Miyazaki also likes to read a bit of H. P. Lovecraft. Well, not a bit; but a lot. As you slay werewolves to find the answer, you will dive ever deeper into the world of Yharnam to find yourselves against Old Gods and the terror they bring with them. Will you barely survive, or will you be granted eyes to see beyond the veil of reality? Will you ever be the same after you’ve done so? Play, and find out (Play the DLC as well, it’s amazing).

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One of the most well-known ARPGs of all time (and coolest), Diablo!

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[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Slayer Builds That Wreck Hard!

Bruno C. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:32:58 +0000

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Slayer Builds That Wreck Hard!

Duelists, the lords of all blades, when faced with a choice of honing their skills become Slayers, capable of handling all forms of weapons to perfect finesse, extracting as much potential from them as possible, turning into a killing machine that feasts on the blood of his enemies.

And here are some of the builds that exemplify that concept!

5 – Shockwave Cyclone

Cyclone's massive AoE with Slayer

While a bit different than most Cyclone builds, the Shockwave variant has grown in popularity in the last few leagues, usually through some Chaos build path and Occultist, but the original intent has always been for pure physical, the way Chris (God) intended.

What the Shockwave Cyclone Excels in:

Buttery smooth clearing
Over 4 million DPS
Fairly tanky by scaling some armor and over 5,5k HP
Great League starter

Shockwave Cyclone full details:

The build revolves around the Cane of Kulemak, a new-ish item introduced in 3.14, that has unique and niche uses and can milk as much damage as possible from Shockwave, which is a support gem that can only be used with staves and maces.
You want to get as much physical damage and attack speed as possible on the staff, and getting Impale chance will help things around, without having to invest too heavily on the tree for that. The rest of the gear is just the standard melee physical stuff. Flat added Phys, crit chance, Abyssus, Critical Multi, elusive/tailwind boots if you can afford them, etc.
For rings (if you have an Additional Curse chest piece) you’ll want an Assassin’s mark ring and another with Vulnerability, to massively increase your damage, as these two are the strongest curses in the game for pure damage, only followed, perhaps, by Sniper’s Mark.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3137398

4 – Oni-Goroshi Brutal Slam

Oni-Goroshi's Brutal Slam Illustration

From staff to a unique two-handed, single hilted blade, that counts as dual wield. The Slayer really can make any form of blade work. And the Oni-Goroshi is such a unique kind of weapon that people still have trouble understanding it and optimizing its damage.

What the Oni-Goroshi Brutal Slam Excels in:

Simple to gear, though very expensive
Over 15 million DPS
Clears the entire game with one hit
Immune to a lot of stuff through Her Embrace

Oni-Goroshi Brutal Slam full details:

The Oni-Goroshi is a unique one-handed, dual-wielding blade that grants you ‘Her Embrace’ when you ignite an enemy. It is a very powerful buff that grants you a LOT of damage, attack, cast and movement speed, immunity to Freeze, Chill, Burning and Ignite. All that at the cost of taking 0.5% of your life and Energy shield per second for each level you’re at. So at level 94, you’ll need to mitigate 47% of your life as a degen, as fire damage, which then is lessened by your fire res (which can be boosted too).
You NEED to have both the Oni-Goroshi (which is fairly cheap, and always 6-linked, which is great) and a Replica’s Farrul Fur, which is extremely expensive just by itself, from 10 to 35 exalted orbs. This is how you automate your Brutal and Frenzy Charges.
The Brutal Charges come from your Arn’s Anguish, which converts all forms of Endurance Charges into Brutal Charges, which grants you 3% chance of dealing TRIPLE damage. At 9 Frenzy/Brutal Charges (because of Masterful Form guaranteeing the same amount of Maximum Endurance Charges as Frenzy Charges) you can reach a 27% chance of dealing TRIPLE damage, which is a ludicrous amount of damage for any build, but especially with Oni-Goroshi, which has a massive amount of increased and flat damage already.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3218063

3 – Frostblades Ichimonji

Frostblades against The Shaper

Stepping away from how expensive the last build was, there’s always budget-friendly builds that can still clear the entire game without breaking the bank, and this one tries to do just that, without pretending and lying to you with clever mechanics (ticking obscure boxes on PoB). And it does that by using two 3chaos blades and a pair of gloves that don’t ever cost over 5c.

What the Frostblades Ichimonji Excels in:

Extremely budget and league starter Friendly
Simple to play and fantastic clearing
Scales linearly with budget and gear
Freezes everything, making it a safe build, along with substantial amounts of block

Frostblades Ichimonji full details:

The way this build works is by having two Ichimonji, which are very high DPS and fast attacking swords, but with very low critical strike chance, which we, as Slayers, can boost by speccing into the Overwhelming Ascendancy Node, instantly making both blades a whopping 8% Crit.
This, combined with Slayer’s own quick and strong attacks, makes it so nothing can withstand your blows, and all with the tiny cost of a measly 6 chaos orbs or less. The Ichimonji are so strong that they can carry you through all of the endgame until you can farm enough currency to do the big jump, and get yourself a Paradoxica and a Saviour, and then, your damage will hit the skies, reaching over 15 million DPS easily.
For defense, we rely mostly on Slayer leech, some 70% block chance, killing and freezing enemies before they get a chance to hit (and nearly everything is permanently frozen) and our single target comes from clever positioning with the Hydrosphere, and by having Tribal Fury or Ancestral Call, to double hit the bosses when you hit the Hydrosphere.

For more a thorough breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3147878

2 – Hollow Palm Cyclone

Hollow Palm Cyclone Illustration

This time, our weapons aren’t blades, but our fists! With Hollow Palm, our hands become as deadly and sharp as any blade, and we crush all who stand in our way! By using Cyclone, the fastest hitting skill, with the best AoE for unarmed, and in this case, unencumbered, we can reach millions of DPS!

What the Hollow Palm Cyclone Excels in:

Fantastic and linear leveling, though not a cheap nor league starter build
Can get it going with just a few uniques and scales fantastically
Over 10 million DPS
Fairly tanky with over 5k life

Hollow Palm Cyclone full details:

Hollow Palm comes from the Unique Cluster Jewel One from Nothing, that grants the Keystone Hollow Palm Technique. This means that while we are unencumbered (no weapons, shields, or gloves), we get 40% More Attack Speed and 14 to 20 Physical Attack Damage per 10 Dex. This means that the more Dexterity we have, the more damage we deal.
Due to how Attribute stacking builds work in PoE, this means we can get easily over 1,2k Dex, and with some heavy investment, over 1,7k Dex. With some great and synergistic items, that means we can get a massive amount of Life from Dex, with the Garukhan’s Flight, which grants +2 Life per 10 Dex. With a single pair of boots, we get over 1k HP.
The best way to stack attributes is by getting as many jewels as possible, jewels that grant flat Dexterity or that convert nearby nodes into Dex. A massive source of Dex is also the Brutal Restraint, especially if you get 5% Dex ones.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3218038

1 – KissMeQuick’s Reave: Reborn

Demonic Reave MTX

Who would’ve thought that a skill as old as Reave could still find viability and, more so, excel in 3.16? KissMeQuick did, and they have a fantastic guide that will take you by the hand and show you exactly what you want and need to make this work, and boy, how it works beautifully!

What KissMeQuick’s Reave:Reborn Excels in:

Scales fantastically with investment, but it’s cheap to start with
Can league Start
Kills the entire content
Very Tanky and a really fun playstyle

KissMeQuick’s Reave:Reborn full details:

Reave has always been a skill that demanded mobs to hit constantly, in order to stack up to its full potential and area. And with Scourge shitting out mobs everywhere, it’s the best Reave has been in forever. Our biggest investment comes from Paradoxica, which literally doubles our damage.
We achieve our tankyness by being full Block, Slayer Overleech (remember how Reave loves attacking? That’s the best thing about Overleech, we’re always leeching), 79% ele res, permanent Fortify, endurance charges, and over 6,5k HP.
Always remember to use your Vaal Skills (Vaal Reave and Vaal Ancestral Warchief) for bosses, popping down the Ancestral Protector for a massive attack speed boost, and using the Vaal Dual Strike Clones to help you deal as much single target damage as possible and insta-phase the bosses!

For a thorough breakdown of this build, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2976624

Main Image caption:

Women swoon at the sight of him, men tremble at the thought of him, and few that face him in battle live to tell the tale.

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[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Raider Builds That Wreck Hard!

Bruno C. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:32:42 +0000

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Raider Builds That Wreck Hard!

Ever since Raiders got their Onslaught node reworked, they’ve risen to popularity and Wraeclast by storm, with their unparallel speed and build diversity and flexibility. Even after several nerfs, they’re still the go-to class for speed, in exchange for power. Here are some of the better builds that make use of Raider’s speed to wipe out the entire continent!

5 – Caustic Arrow

Tentacle Caustic Arrow MTX

While Toxic Rain continues to rain supreme as the go-to Chaos DoT Bow build, its older, simpler brother, Caustic Arrow, is much cheaper and easier to make, and you have a much smoother clearing with CA than TR, at the cost of some single target damage. Both skills are mostly interchangeable since they scale similarly. The biggest difference is that TR wants Attack Speed, while CA doesn’t care about it at all. Thus, much easier to get a strong +3 bow for CA than it is for TR.

What the Caustic Arrow Excels in:

Fantastic and seasoned League Starter
Can do all content with proper investment
Simple playstyle and clear screens with just one button press
Very tanky, with over 6k life

Caustic Arrow full details:

CA relies on scaling gem levels, just like a spell, which is perfect for early game league, since you don’t need special gear to deal damage, just killing mobs and leveling up is enough. Eventually, you’ll need upgrades like a +3 bow, +2 amulets, an Empower Level 4, everything you can to push CA to level 28 or more, which will cost a lot late game.
We’re very tank with the changes to Spell Suppression and high evade chance, and the best defense in the game: not getting hit. With how quickly we move, we can manually dodge most projectiles and telegraphed attacks and spells in the game. If you want even more tankiness, you can get a Xibaqua Legion Jewel and convert 50% of elemental damage into chaos damage, making it even stronger against big hits. All this on over 6,000 life pool.
The stat you’ll want the most is Chaos DoT Multiplier, and you can get it on gloves, quivers, bows (that’s why they’re so expensive because you want a +3 and the DOT multi), jewels, and in the passive tree. If you’re rich, you can also go for a Malevolence Watcher’s Eye, but with how good the new defensive auras are, it’s harder to justify.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2077932

4 – Lancing Steel

Lancing Steel skill demonstration

While Steel skills aren’t everyone’s cup, with the way the Call of Steel works, no one can argue how strong they are and how quickly they can obliterate bosses when properly geared. With this build, you’ll cover your screen in projectiles and clear as far as the eye can see, sweeping monsters into dust along the way!

What the Lancing Steel Excels in:

Somewhat cheap to start with, even in League Starts.
Can do all content
Over 15 million DPS without much effort
The Saviour is a DPS and Clearing multiplier

Lancing Steel full details:

Call of Steel works by pulling out stacks of Impale off of monsters and exploding them in an area, at the cost of losing the stacks, but since we attack over 12 times a second, that really doesn’t matter, and the more steel shards we have (that we get when we pull the impales stacks) the more damage we can do.
It’s a 2-button gameplay and thus people aren’t extremely fond of it. The fact that it isn’t a flashy attack, and that makes use of some obscure mechanics, also hasn’t endeared most people to it. But that’s a good thing! It means that gearing for it is cheaper than what otherwise could be!
We achieve some form of survivability by stacking Life Gain on Hit through gear and jewels, and with literally dozens of projectiles hitting per second, we’re near immortal as long as we can attack (not counting one-shots).

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3077253

3 – Hopeshredder Frenzy Stacking

Frenzy

It couldn’t be a Ranger build-list without some bow builds, and Hopeshredder embodies all that Raider wants to be and is great at while giving us the damage that Raiders tend to lack. All for the cheap price of a constant degen that we have to deal with in some way.

What the Hopeshredder Frenzy Stacking Excels in:

Can achieve over 50 million (FIFTY million!) DPS
Clear screens instantly
Insanely fast
Melts bosses in the blink of an eye

Hopeshredder Frenzy Stacking full details:

Hopeshredder is a bow that scales its damage based on the number of frenzy charges, as well as several other bonuses, like movement speed, elemental ailment avoidance, and life leech; all at the cost of losing 200 life per second per frenzy charge. And since we achieve 9 to 10 Frenzy Charges, that’s a lot of life we have to regenerate.
We do that by getting as much maximum cold resistance as possible, getting some regen nodes on the passive tree, a corrupted Darkray Vector with 100 life regen while moving, and leech.
Aim for +2 or +3 arrows so you can use Lightning Arrow as the clearing skill, otherwise, go with Scourge Arrow or Rain of Arrows for your clearing, and your single target is Barrage to completely demolish your enemies in an instant!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2912054

2 – Oro’s Cyclone

Fire themed character

Oro’s Sacrifice has been a standard unique to use at league start and still be relevant throughout the playthrough, and Raider takes the relatively slow attacking sword with huge flat damage, and maximizes it with their insane attack speed, by stacking Frenzy Charges as much as they can.

What Oro’s Cyclone Excels in:

Extremely Tanky
Simple and effective League starter
Fast clearer
Elemental Ailment immune

Oro’s Cyclone full details:

Our tankiness comes from stacking as much Strength as we can to increase our life totals, combined with a lot of high armor gear to scale our armor and Molten shell, giving us a fairly constant capped Molten Shell.
Our damage has a soft ceiling with Oro by nature, but we can still farm T16s and get better gear. Scaling critical multiplier and jewels can also buff up our damage to the heavens.
If you want even more tankiness, you can get a Brass Dome (at the cost of a lot of life) to get Crit immunity, 5% maximum resistance, and over 4k armor chest piece.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3052143

1 – Devon’s Blooming Flicker

Devon's Blooming Flicker Illustration

What else embodies the Raider than the skill that fits the archetype perfectly? With Flicker, you become as quick as lightning, dashing through packs of enemies without care, demolishing everything along the way.

What Devon’s Blooming Flicker Excels in:

Can be a good League Starter if you know what you’re doing
Fastest attacking build in the game
Can clear most content
Surprisingly Tanky

Devon’s Blooming Flicker full details:

Flicker Strike is a skill that consumes a Frenzy Charge to teleport to the enemy and hit them with a powerful strike. With Multistrike, we can do 3 hits with just one charge. And if the enemy dies during this, you get teleported to the nearest enemy. In an ideal scenario, you’ll chain from pack to pack seamlessly and leave nothing but corpses and loot behind.
To circumvent the issue of consuming Frenzy Charges to attack, we need a reliable way to generate such charges. We do that through Flicker Strike’s inherent frenzy on hit (15%) + 20% from Raider’s own node + 10% from an Influenced body Armour, which gives us a 45% chance to gain a charge on hit. This means that with Multistrike, there’s only a 16.6% chance of NOT getting a charge per use of Flicker, and even then, you’ll have a lot of built-up frenzy charges, and most bosses melt instantly anyway. While clearing, this is a non-issue since you always get frenzy charges on kill.
Our tankiness comes from Spell Suppression, a lot of Evasion that gets converted to Armour with Iron Reflexes (and Determination to further boost the armor values) and by virtue of killing everything before they can kill us!

For a thorough breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2874747

Main Image caption:

The Ranger is most comfortable hidden from view, felling her opponents from a distance with her mighty long bow. When cornered though, she fights as fiercely as a tigress with sword, dagger, mace, or whatever is at hand.

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[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Hierophant Builds That Wreck Hard!

Bruno C. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:32:24 +0000

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Hierophant Builds That Wreck Hard!

Totem masters. Mana manipulators. Lightning beacons. The Hierophant holds a special place in Wraeclast that none can even attempt defying. Strongest with their totems, and the go-to class for any mana-oriented build, they are unstoppable and relentless. And here are some of the best builds that exemplify the Hierophant’s power!

5 – Cold Shockwave Totem

Shocking Totem against Baran

Throughout the years, as GGG adds more unique items that modify how certain types of skills work, older, forgotten skills resurface, because that was just what that skill needed to be viable. And the Shockwave Totem is no different. With the new (ish) Astral Projector unique Ring, your Shockwave Totem will attack from anywhere in the screen, instead of a nova around itself!

What the Cold Shockwave Totem Excels in:

Totem playstyle
A lot of damage
Freeze everything
Cheap to start and play with
Scales well with investment

Cold Shockwave Totem full details:

Using the Astral Projector to ‘throw’ nova skills around enemies, we bypass the biggest issue Shockwave Totem had, which was targeting and reach. With the ring, the Nova generated is centered around the enemy, and as such, they aren’t pushed away from the damage by the shock waves, which displace enemies.
This, combined with the freezing capabilities of Phys to Cold conversion, freezes and shatter mobs, making the build, which already has a safe playstyle through the use of totems, even safer. It’s home-guided, aim-less and with just a single button press.
We achieve our Cold Conversion through a few ways. You can get it from your weapon, which can convert up to 15% of Phys to Cold. Temple mods on gloves, for 25%, Watcher’s Eye Hatred Mod, up to 40%, from the Passive Skill tree mastery, for another 40%. And ultimately, for the easiest, with a Hrimsorrow for 50%. Use what you have available, and you should find success that way as well!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3200888/page/1

4 – Energy Blade Spectral Helix/Doryani’s Prototype

Energy Blade Ancestral Protector Totems

Energy Blade is a controversial (because it’s still not completely solved) new skill that converts half of your Energy shield into a lightning dealing sword, 1H or 2H, to attack with, replacing whatever you had beforehand. The tankier you get, the more damage you deal. But you have several things to overcome, so it isn’t clear, right now, what’s the best way to go about it.

What the Energy Blade Spectral Helix Excels in:

You get to look like a Jedi!
Scales well with investment
Respectable clear
Unique itemization

Energy Blade Spectral Helix Doryani’s Prototype full details:

The way Doryani’s Prototype works is by stacking as much as negative Lightning resistance because then your resistance is transferred to enemies around you, making them take a lot more lightning damage this way. And because we scale a lot of armor, energy shield and mana, we can ignore most forms of Lightning damage, since Armor becomes the primary defense against lightning damage. A defense that mobs won’t have.
The more energy shield we have, the more lightning damage our Energy Blade will deal, with the second benefit of making us tankier while in the process. In 3.16, with Scourge implicits granting from 15 to 30 negative lightning resist, this made for a fantastic league to try your feet with Doryani’s Prototype.
Spectral Helix is simply one of the best skills that scales added damage, with a whopping 250% effectiveness of added damage, and we can get over 2000 flat Lightning damage from our Energy Blade!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3190571

3 – Enki’s Archmage

Enki's Archmage Banner

Enki is probably the most well-known content creator for novice players. They’ve helped most people get started with PoE and have always updated their guides. It used to be the old, famous Enki’s Arc Witch, but after several nerfs and changes, it got changed for the stronger Hierophant. Here’s their take on this build!

What Enki’s Archmage Excels in:

Linear progression with investment
Great League Starter
Decent single target with proper positioning and gear
Can have a fantastic clearing

Enki’s Archmage full details:

The Archmage support gem works by consuming a large amount of your mana to power your spells. And by using spells that have massive damage effectiveness, such as Ball Lightning (50% per hit, it can hit 13 times, for a total of 650%), will demolish enemies with a single cast (which is great, because you just spent your entire mana in a single spell!)
Since we deal more damage per mana, our goal is to scale as much Maximum mana as possible, as well as mana regen, since we consume so much of it, and will need to replenish it.
While the build can work with most kinds of gear you can scrounge up, you’ll achieve maximum potential with certain Uniques, such as Pledge of Hands for a massive DPS boost, Cloak of Defiance for another massive DPS and defensiveness boost, and the best item for clearing in the game, Asenath’s Gentle Touch, for corpse explosions, improving our clearing sevenfold!

For a more thorough breakdown of this build, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3147914

2 – Siege Ballista

The several Siege Ballista

The Iron Commander is a relic from the past, from before Ballistae were truly integrated into the passive tree and their uniqueness compared to regular spell totems were defined. It stood the test of time, though, and in the hands of the Totem Master, we can reach 17 totems!!

What the Siege Ballista Excels in:

Massive single target damage
An army of Ballistae
Impaling the enemy with thousands of arrows per second
Safe playstyle

Siege Ballista full details:

We achieve 17 totems through Iron Commander, which grants one totem per 200 Dexterity, and with over 2000 Dex, we get 10 from it, another 33 from Siege Ballista itself, another one from Pursuit of Faith, +2 from Panopticon and +1 from Watchtowers. Considering every totem up grants us 5% more Damage, plus their own base damage, when we can set up all our damage, every boss gets plucked out of the sky in seconds!
We convert our damage to Cold, so we can freeze and shatter enemies, as well as make it easier to scale damage with Dexterity, through the use of certain uniques, like Hyrri’s Demise or Fractal Thoughts.
Our defense comes mostly from everything dying around us without touching us. Keep popping ballistae and hiding behind them and you’ll be safe!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3227081

1 – Manabond Hiero

Manabond Representation

Mana builds and skills are unique to PoE and there are several different approaches to them. With Manabond, you deal more damage the more missing unreserved mana you have, meaning, low mana = DAMAGE. But this is a tough balance to find, and you need to know exactly how much mana you need to spend and get to deal the most efficient amount of damage possible.

What the Manabond Hiero Excels in:

Cosplay as Thor
Over 10k ES and Mana
Super Tanky
Extremely strong, can face-tank most content in the game
Fantastic clearing

Manabond Hiero full details:

We use a CwC Cyclone in our chest just to help with clearing, since the brunt of our damage comes from Mjolner’s casting Manabond nonstop. By making use of several synergistic items, such as The Ivory Tower, The Indigon, Atziri’s Foible, and Prism Guardian, we scale a lot of mana and convert it to Energy Shield.
The more mana we consume, the more lightning damage we get from our Arcane Cloak and Sigil of Power. This, combined with how Manabond works, and spending mana to proc Indigon (up to 2000% spell damage), our ideal mana pool should be less than 5% while attacking, despite having over 9k mana, to deal massive amounts of damage.
The most expensive items will be your Split Personalities as well as getting level 5 Awakened Gems, which will help you Expose the enemy, become immune to stuns and reach the millions of damage this build can get to.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3228343

Main Image caption:

"The hour of judgment draws near." And the Hierophant's Judgement is swift and with prejudice!

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[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Chieftain Builds That Wreck Hard!

Bruno C. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:32:03 +0000

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Chieftain Builds That Wreck Hard!

Chieftains are the spiritual brothers to the Hierophants. Where Hierophants excel in lightning and mana, the Chieftains master the fire and life. They hit hard and slow, and they dominate the battlefield with their Tukohama-blessed totems, spewing out mountains of fiery lava at their enemies!

And here are some of the best builds that exemplify that explosive nature!

5 – Discharge Ignite Chieftain

Discharge

What better way to kill mobs than to burn them into smithereens and forget their existence? Erased in a supernova to never be seen again? Without breaking the bank to do it? This build does just that, with nary an issue!

What the Discharge Ignite Chieftain Excels in:

Respectable single Target damage without much investment
Super easy to gear, no required uniques involved
Tanky with over 50k Armor and 6k Life
Nearly immortal with VMS up

Discharge Ignite Chieftain full details:

Discharge works by consuming Endurance, Frenzy, or Power Charges to deal the corresponding damage based on the number of charges consumed. We scale as many charges as we can, and we convert all our damage into fire, with Avatar of Fire, to use the damage from the other charges (Cold for Frenzy, Lightning for Power) and turn it into fire, to scale our Ignite Damage.
With the changes to Ignite in 3.16, higher hits are more important and as such, having a massive Discharge dealing absurd levels of damage only helps our Ignite DPS. Scaling a lot of Fire DoT Multiplier, both on gear and jewels/passive tree will go a long way toward pushing our damage to the stratosphere!
We generate our charges through a Farrul’s Fur, Enduring Cry, and having a Redblade Banner shield allows us to always have maximum Endurance Charges on cooldown. We achieve our Tankiness with 50/50 Block, over 50k Armor, 10k Molten Shell, a lot of life regen, 20% of Phys damage taken as Fire due to being a Chieftain, as well as being extremely beefy with over 6,5k EHP.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3220098

4 – Volatile Dead CwC Self-Ignite Chieftain

Countless Volatile Dead Orbs

Cyclone and Auto-aimed VDs. Spin to win without having to even care what’s happening, while being a massive tanky boi at the same time. You spin around throwing balls of evil fire around you that chase down your enemies and burn them to a crisp for you! They might not think so, but it is a blast!

What Volatile Dead CwC Self Ignite Excels in:

Absurdly Tanky with over 8,5k Life
Around 2 million DPS with proper gearing
Consistent damage
No Mana issues

Volatile Dead CwC Self-Ignite full details:

This works by self-igniting ourselves with Eye of Innocence, which causes us to take 100 fire damage when we ignite an enemy. Then, we get life back from Ngmahu’s Sign, and since we hit so often with Cyclone, we proc several instances Cast When Damage Taken, which is where our damage comes from.
We proc Desecrate to spawn corpses so that we can trigger Volatile Dead with our primary link. We also trigger Curses, Wave of Conviction to lower enemies’ resistance, and we proc more sources of ignite, to feed the loop further, with Blade Vortex, Firestorm, or Bladefall.
To deal with mana issues that came from the changes to trigger mechanics, we go Blood Magic to make everything be spent from our Life, which is massive and we have a ton of regen, making everything essentially free.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3180145

3 – The Warchief Facebreaker

Warchief Totem with the Iron Maiden MTX

Ever since the introduction of Ancestral Warchief Totems, people have gravitated towards making it work with Facebreakers, using the massive 800% damage multiplier, and having your totems do the brunt of the work. This hasn’t changed in all the years since and only gets better over time.

What the Warchief Facebreaker Excels in:

Tanky with over 6k Life
Can do all content and map mods
Safe behind totems which leech life for you
Respectable single target damage

Warchief Facebreaker full details:

Due to how Facebreakers works, we want as much flat physical damage from our gear, and as such, we stack items that grant us that, such as Abyss Jewels, Steel Rings, Abyssus, and even the more defensive chest-piece Loreweave, since it has a strong amount of Physical damage.
With Redblade Banner, our Enduring Cry can regenerate over 2,000 HP in less than a second, making it much stronger than any flask in the game, with a low cooldown. You can use that until you get a powerful +1 Totem Shield, to boost your damage further.
Always aim to get as much flat Physical damage in your gear, rings, and amulet, as that is what scales our damage the most.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1694250

2 – Righteous Incinerator

Righteous Fire with Divine MTX

If you want a build that you don’t have to worry about, that can use anything and everything available to you, and that will tank the whole game without so much as caring what you’re facing, this build is for you. The Righteous Incinerator is all about being relaxed and simple to play, without cracking your head over tiny things and specific items. Simple to play and perfect to enjoy.

What the Righteous Incinerator Excels in:

Very Tanky
Extremely flexible in gearing
League Start and HC viable
Can do most content in the game with proper investment

Righteous Incinerator full details:

Our main active damage comes from an Incinerate linked to Infused Channeling Support Gem (since it increases RF’s damage too), Immolate, Lifetap(removes any mana issues), and Faster Casting, to reach maximum stages as fast as possible.
Since RF doesn’t need, nor does it have many good links, a simple 4 or pseudo-5-Link is more than enough damage, since our damage truly comes from how much Life and Energy shield we have.
Our gear is flexible but we want as much life, life regen, life regeneration rate, resists, strength and, in certain pieces, Fire damage over time Multiplier, on gloves, scepters, and amulets. You can make a Pseudo 5Link with Conc Effect or even 6-Link in your helmet, or by using Essence of Delirium on your gloves and getting a Pseudo 5Link that way, to help boost RF’s damage.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3187518

1 – One-Shot Tectonic Slam

Tectonic Slam

In most games, if not all, the concept of One-shot is a bit murky. Does it actually mean killing things with a single hit? Or a single combo? And what about preparation? Does that count? I’m of the mind that yes, to all the above. If the boss dies within the blink of an eye, even if it was a flurry of tiny hits, that’s still a one-shot for me. And if you prepare by buffing yourself beforehand, so you can deliver a single hit that kills the enemy instantly, that’s the same thing, with different steps. And this build does just that. It will demolish any and all enemies in a single slam that shatters the fabric of space-time and blows the enemy into smithereens.

What the One-Shot Tectonic Slam Excels in:

Extremely Tanky
Scales wonderfully with investment, from 3 million to 50 million DPS
One hit clears the entire screen
Safe since enemies can’t kill you if they’re dead. Off-screen
Can League Start if you know what you’re doing, and even if you don’t

One-Shot Tectonic Slam full details:

This build features all steps of budget for you, from League start, and less than 50 chaos budget to over 50 exalts in the budget, helping you know what to choose and when and how to acquire sensible upgrades.
You’ll need to get used to the gameplay, which is a bit slower and methodical, but it’s one of the most satisfying builds there is when you can buff yourself up and then blow everything up in a single hit. We stack Endurance charges, which grant us a lot of damage and physical mitigation, as well as a ton of life regen.
Our damage starts non-crit, just to get our feet wet until we can afford a Disintegrator and a crit body armor. Then, things start getting exponentially stronger, reaching over 10 million DPS without much investment (10 to 15ex), all the while getting key jewels to improve and close any holes you have in your gear.

For a thoroughly detailed breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2922828

Main Image caption:

"For Tukohama!" If there's one thing the Chieftains do, is being their God's instruments, and they have no qualms about it!

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[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Ascendant Builds That Wreck Hard!

Bruno C. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:31:40 +0000

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Ascendant Builds That Wreck Hard!

The Ascendant. The Jack of All Trades of Path of Exile. The Bane of Balance. A class that is always the best choice or the worst choice, depending on the patch. Sadly, we’re in a ‘bad’ patch for her, have been for a long time now. That said, there are still a few builds that have stood the test of time and as such, they’re my picks for this list!

5 – Glacial Hammer Shieldmaiden

Herald of Ice Glacial Hammer AoE Clearing

The skill that generated memes for years (This is a buff 4%) and is as controversial as anything has any right to be, and yet, it’s a solid, usable skill that survived many nerfs and meta changes. And with Scion, it can still shine and clear most of the game!

What the Glacial Hammer Shieldmaiden Excels in:

Extremely Tanky
Slow but reliable clear
Enough Single-target to face-tank and kill most bosses in the game
Cheap to start with and scales well with investment

Glacial Hammer Shieldmaiden full details:

We achieve our tankiness by stacking as much block and spell block as possible, reaching 80/75 Attack and Spell block, 15k armour, 25k evasion, and over 6k life!
Our Damage comes mostly from gems and the weapon, which grants us permanent double damage. Unless you invest mountains of exalts, you’ll hit a soft cap in damage of around 2 million, but you’ll consistently freeze and crowd control bosses, so it’s a very safe bosser.
Your area comes from Winter Burial unique jewel, which gives Glacial Hammer some splash damage, but unless you use Ancestral Call, the clearing will be on the slower side. You’re essentially immortal, though, so that isn’t a problem at all.

For a thorough breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3218085

4 – Andreshki’s Blood Queen

Illustration of the Blood Queen

Blood skills were introduced in 3.14 and they’re here to stay! Due to where certain physical dot masteries are located, Scion is the best class to grab them quickly and have a fantastic leveling experience with them, and the damage never plateaus. You’ll drench mobs in blood and make them burst in a gory fest with this build!

What Andreshki’s Blood Queen Excels in:

Near immortal
League Starter viable and extremely cheap
Scale superbly well with proper investment
Quick and Gauntlet-ready
Very satisfying to play

Andreshki’s Blood Queen full details:

We achieve our tankiness through a few mechanics. First, we’re capped blocked for both Attacks and Spells. Secondly, with The Devouring Diadem, our ES gets transferred to protect our Mana, and with Mind over Matter, this means that 30% of the damage we take gets taken out from the ES. As such, we can use all our mana to reserve Petrified Blood, making it so 45% of the damage we take be staggered, which means we need a lot of life regen.
Our damage comes mostly from gem levels, and they’re really easy to get with two Cold-Iron Point daggers, for a whopping +6 All Physical Spell Gems, as well as Empower 3 or 4 (for another 2 or 3 levels) and +1 or +2 Amulets, reaching over level 30 Exsanguinate easily.
We increment our damage with a Pseudo 5L Corrupting Fever, on a pair of Delirium Gloves for the 30% More DoT. Since we’re Low Life because of Petrifying blood, we get easy access to Block from Daresso’s Courage, easy damage mitigation from Lori’s Lantern that grants unlucky damage taken, and of course, 30% More Spell Damage from Pain Attunment.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3085369

3 – Babezerker Dual Strike Brutus’ Lead Sprinkler

The Ascendant Dual Wielding two Brutus Lead Sprinkler

This is what The Ascendant is meant to be. The missing link between impossible builds, bringing everything together uniquely and interestingly. Combining elements from the other side of the passive tree with the Berzerker, and having more points than knowing what to do with them!

What the Babezerker Dual Strike Excels in:

Fairly tanky, with capped Attack Block and over 5k life
Great clearing for a melee skill
Over 10 million single-target DPS!
Cheap and simple to gear and start!

Babezerker Dual Strike full details:

As this is a strength-stacking build, there’s a soft ceiling you have unless you invest a LOT of currency into Split Personalities and several cluster jewels. That said, this build can respectably achieve over 1500 Strength without a single cluster jewel!
We make use of two Brutus’ Lead Sprinklers, to get over 600~1050 fire damage, with then Dual Strike combines both and amplifies it by 110%, and with their Threshold jewel, all that damage is splashed while used with a mace, so you don’t have to care about clearing, since that’s taken care of by itself!
We go Berserker for the massive 15% more damage boost and free Rage, stun immunity and we snag Assassin for our secondary ascendancy since it gives Elusive (fantastic for clearing and is a defensive buff by itself) as well as helping cap off our Critical Strike Chance, with a flat 0,75% Crit (sounds little, but it’s very much impressive), as well as giving free Power Charge generation and reflect immunity (when criting).

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3180732

2 – Freeze Battlemage

Illustration of the Freeze Battlemage

This is a more supportive build, which is often how people prefer using the Ascendant, and in this case, it’s a crowd-control warlord. With some really simple and yet effective mechanics, you can freeze bosses for over 15 seconds with a single attack, and protect your party from any sort of damage. Bosses can’t hit you if they’re a popsicle!

What the Freeze Battlemage Excels in:

Party Play
Easy to gear and cheap to get into
Good clearing with proper investment
Freeze anything and everything forever

Freeze Battlemage full details:

The way this build works is by making use of a few unique interactions and synergies. First, Glacial Hammer’s inherent ‘freeze enemies as though dealing 400% more damage’, then multiplying that with Pain Seeker’s Unique glove, for another 200% multiplier, and then finally with Expedition’s End for another 90%+ multiplier. This, with a lot of increases to ailment effect on the passive tree and duration, can increase any freeze duration by over 50 times, and the only enemies that won’t be frozen are the immune ones (which there aren’t many in the game).
While you can play this build solo, with a Crest of Desire, either with Herald of Ice or Thunder, or whatever other form you want (you just need to freeze with the Glacial Hammer), this is mostly for party play, so you can protect your team by freezing everything so they kill the monsters!
You can start with just a few items and grow from there and it’s a fantastic build for doing Bighted maps, since you can freeze whole lanes in just a second with your trusty Hydrosphere!

For more information, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3193479

1 – Holy Flame Totem Hiero/Chief

Two Holy Flame Totems

HFT was once the best leveling skill, and while still being very solid for most totem builds as a leveling, it fell out of favor for flashier, quicker totem builds. But as with every other build for the Ascendant, she can work miracles with lesser-used skills, bridging the gap needed to bring skill into viability, and HFT is no different!

What the Holy Flame Totem Excels in:

Very Tanky
Totem playstyle is simple and comfortable, though it takes some getting used to
Can clear most of the game with cheap gear
HC, Gauntlet, League Starter Viable.
Very cheap and scales extremely well with currency

Holy Flame Totem full details:

We stack as much life as possible, and our totems, thanks to Chieftain’s ascendancy, heals us for a % of the damage they deal, as well as taunting enemies near our totems. This, combined with how safe the totem playstyle is, allows us to avoid the most dangerous encounters by simply hiding behind our totems or walls!
The damage is solid and can be scaled with several items, and if you want to push the envelope, you can get Cowards’ Legacy, Viridi’s Veil, and a Soul Mantle, to achieve massive damage, while still being very tanky thanks to Viridi’s Veil curse immunity and unlucky damage mechanic!
With over 7k life and several totems doing the work, taking part of the damage you’d take, taunting and leeching life to you, they’re your biggest offense and defense at the same time, and all this power is from the passive tree, making it a fantastic league starter build!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3146104

Main Image caption:

"Power corrupts, while corruption empowers." That's the Ascendant's guiding motto and she lives and dies by it.

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