As Diablo 4 Season 4 begins play testing on PTR on April 2, we’re discovering that the developers have made changes in the new season that affect nearly everything about the game. Not only that, Season 4 also reshapes the meaning of character creation and attempts to make them a tool to destroy bosses. This is crazy!
Here, we’ll summarize the top five changes in Season 4 that surprised me the most, which may make you feel that the familiar Diablo 4 has completely disappeared. Without further ado, let’s get started.
It’s no secret that level 50 marks the beginning of Diablo 4 endgame, as this is when your gear and builds should start to come together.
It is at this stage that you need to clear Capstone Dungeons and their bosses to advance to the next World Tier for more XP and better loot. Previously, it only took a few hours to get to this point, but next season, it will be faster.
The developer has previously introduced in a live broadcast how players in Diablo 4 will gain XP benefits through World Tier difficulties. Starting next season, World Tier 2 has a 50% bonus XP, World Tier 3 has a 150% bonus XP, and World Tier 4 has a 250% bonus XP.
You can expect to see the new endgame crafting system in Season 4 sooner as you progress to higher World Tiers faster. This is an exciting change for those who crave more powerful Diablo 4 items but don't have the time to spend weeks grinding to level 100.
The powerful buffs Legendary Items or Aspects bring to a build work well. But the original Aspect system forced you to keep Legendary Items or Aspects in your stash in order to put on new gear, which was very annoying.
But in Season 4, not only can you replace gear less frequently, but Legendary Aspects will now be permanently present in your Codex of Power menu.
Most Aspects can be randomly rolled to determine the strength of the bonus number. While Legendary items have increasingly higher bonuses as they roll, you can permanently increase the number in your Codex of Powe by salvaging them at Blacksmith. You can imprint this aspect on other gear as needed without retaining anything in your stash.
This means our risk of using a perfectly rolled aspect on ordinary items will disappear, and it will be easier to try different ones.
The developers seem to have simplified this system so that you can focus on Tempering and Masterworking items later in the game.
The most exciting change is that the number of useless items dropped in Season 4 is about to drop significantly. Because the developers removed the restriction on Uniques, they now drop in World Tier 1 and 2, and monsters of level 55 or higher can even drop Uber Uniques.
For example, Necromancer can even find Black River Scythe before level 50, which causes devastating Corpse Explosions. This way, builds that rely on powerful Uniques will no longer have to wait until the endgame to reach their maximum strength.
The change to item power is also one of the surprising statistics in Diablo 4 and will also make loot more relevant. Previously, it was always bad to find gear with weak stats because of low item power. But in Season 4, item power has been standardized to where you don’t really need to think about it.
Maximum item power gear will always drop from level 95 or higher monsters. This means that by a round level 80, item power will become irrelevant when you run Nightmare Dungeons in World Tier 4. You only need to care about the actual stats of your gear and whether it’s worth upgrading them.
Also, Diablo 4 Season 4’s two new crafting systems, Tempering and Masterworking, allow you to add specific statistics to your items.
Whether you want movement speed or class-specific stats, your items will reflect which stats are important to you. On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal, but it will radically increase the number you can build.
In the new crafting system, you can choose which stats to invest in and to what extent. A Rogue with a lot of mobility cooldown reduction and grenade damage can invest heavily in Stun Grenades since they will drop whenever you evade.
Flexibility in stat selection adds variety to Diablo 4’s build options. Even if you decide to follow the build guide, it will take a while to create the theoretically best item, so you’ll have to decide which stats you personally care about during the process.
Finally, the developers revealed the new endgame dungeons coming to Season 4, which are Greater Rifts in Diablo 3. This is a limited-time dungeon that becomes increasingly more difficult as the levels go up, and has a new name: Pit of Artificers.
You can think of them like Nightmare Dungeons, but the goal is to race through them and eventually earn rare loot and materials.
The game will have more than 100 tiers, and the monsters will become increasingly difficult. Of course, as you level up, the rare loot at the end gets better and better.
Pit of Artificers will drop items to summon Tormented Bosses, which will drop materials allowing you to select an Uber Unique on your first kill. With Andariel joining the regular boss roster, you will no longer have to fight Duriel repeatedly to find the rarest items in the game.
While the new endgame activities in Season 4 won’t solve the problem of challenge in the open world fading away over time, it will add variety where it’s desperately needed. Considering we still don’t know what the season-specific features will be, this is a promising foundation for an increasingly stale part of the game.
In any case, the arrival of Diablo 4 Season 4 is bound to bring us a series of new surprises. Let us wait and see!
See More: Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR's Feedbacks And Thoughts & Speculations On Diablo 5
If you're familiar with WoW Season of Discovery, you likely understand that efficiently completing all your prequests and consistently engaging in dungeons will swiftly propel you to level 50.
However, for those who seek a more immersive experience, this guide offers comprehensive coverage of optimal questing zones, alongside valuable advice, recommended levels, and strategic routes tailored to enhance your journey during Season of Discovery Phase 3.
Before delving into the details, it's essential to grasp 5 key points:
Firstly, Season of Discovery presents an array of engaging content, including new runes and PVE experiences such as Nightmare Incursions in Ashenvale, Duskwood, Hinterlands, and Feralas. These events not only provide valuable experience and reputation but also offer unique items like the Anguish of Dream and the Nightmare Siphon to aid in your leveling journey.
Secondly, during the questing process towards level 50, there are often periods of slower progression. Engaging in dungeons like Uldaman, Zul'Farrak, and Maraudon can mitigate these lulls. It's advisable to undertake each of these dungeons at least once due to the multitude of quests available, providing substantial experience and introducing fresh content.
Thirdly, certain recommended zones may experience overcrowding, prompting the need for rerouting. Many of these zones encompass broad level ranges, allowing for flexibility in exploration.
Fourthly, it's important to note that undertaking quests marked as "green" provides comparable base experience to those labeled "yellow" or "orange" as long as you remain within five levels of their suggested level range.
Lastly, this guide serves as a comprehensive overview rather than a definitive roadmap to the fastest route to level 50. It aims to offer guidance on worthwhile zones and content areas to explore throughout your journey.
Stranglethorn Vale proves to be an exceptional questing zone for Phase 3, as well as an ideal area for those in their early 40s.
Renowned for its dense population of hostile creatures and abundance of kill quests, it offers a fertile ground for efficient leveling. Most initial quests in this zone lead to subsequent higher-level tasks, enhancing its appeal as a starting point for adventurers seeking optimization.
Before delving into Stranglethorn Vale, it's advisable to collect quests between Grom'gol and Booty Bay. Many of these quests overlap in various areas, allowing for simultaneous completion and streamlined progression.
Additionally, quests such as "Up to Snuff" and "Bloody Bone Necklaces," forming part of separate quest chains, need not be rushed during the first attempt. These chains often circle back to the same areas, simplifying future completion.
Should challenges arise, whether due to player-versus-player encounters or overcrowding, Dustwallow Marsh presents a viable alternative for smoother questing.
However, I recommend venturing into Scarlet Monastery Cathedral until reaching level 41 or 42, offering a strategic advantage over competing adventurers.
At approximately level 41 or 42, our journey leads us to the Badlands.
This region remains beneficial for leveling until around level 45, offering straightforward starting quests that yield ample experience. However, the primary allure lies in its connection to Uldaman, housing numerous dungeon quests to undertake.
Among these quests are "Solutions of Doom," situated in the southern Badlands at coordinates 51,76; "Power Stones," located at the heart of the region at 42,52; and "Platinum Disc," obtainable upon completing the dungeon itself. These quests provide adventurers with rewarding challenges and opportunities for progression.
For Horde players, it's advisable to remain in the Badlands until reaching approximately level 42 to 43, before transitioning to the Swamp of Sorrows.
This area offers promising opportunities for leveling, although caution is warranted due to the scattered yet dense population of hostile creatures.
Particular attention should be paid to the higher-level mobs near the Pools of Tears, especially with the presence of the new raid, Sunken Temple (also known as The Temple of Atal'Hakkar). Additionally, a formidable elite dragon roams the vicinity of the Eastern pool, necessitating vigilance.
Moreover, herbalists seeking Blindweed should take note that the Swamp of Sorrows is one of the few regions where this valuable resource can be harvested. Its scarcity makes it a lucrative commodity, especially as Phase 3 approaches.
Our next destination is Dustwallow Marsh. It serves as a suitable area for early leveling, spanning from levels 35 to 45. However, the optimal level range within this zone typically falls around level 42.
Of particular note is the presence of a quest named "Tiara of the Deep," which constitutes one of the dungeon quests for Zul'Farrak. This quest can be obtained in the southern section of the zone. Dustwallow Marsh offers a mix of quests catering to varying levels, though many of them are part of quest chains, which may not be the most efficient for leveling.
Personally, I tend to venture into Dustwallow Marsh during periods of quest scarcity in other zones or when facing challenges such as player-versus-player encounters in hotspots like STV.
Around levels 44 to 45, it's time to venture into Tanaris.
Tanaris stands out as one of my preferred zones for questing in the mid-40s and is home to the entrance of one of the finest dungeons available in this level range: Zul'Farrak. To fully engage with this dungeon, it's essential to gather numerous Zul'Farrak quests from Gadgetzan.
These quests encompass "Troll Temper" from Trenton Lighthammer, situated at coordinates 51,28; "Scarab Shells" from Tran'rek, located at 51,26; and "Divino-Matic Rod" from Chief Engineer Bilgewhizzle, positioned at 52,28.
Additionally, adventurers can acquire several quests from other zones, including "The Tiara of the Deep" from Dustwallow Marsh around 46,57, and "Gahz'rilla" from Thousand Needles at 77,78. However, it's crucial to note that completing "Gahz'rilla" necessitates obtaining a Mallet through a Hinterlands questline, so it's advisable to delay pursuing this quest. Finally, "The Prophecy of Mosh'aru" awaits discovery in the eastern section of Tanaris, known as Steamwheedle Port.
Between levels 45 to 46, Feralas emerges as the next optimal destination.
Prior to embarking on your journey to Feralas, ensure that you acquire the quest "Screecher Spirits" from Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris, as discussed earlier. Navigating this zone may pose challenges due to frequent changes in elevation, as well as the presence of numerous bodies of water and steep hills. Additionally, Feralas serves as the habitat for higher-level Nightmare Incursions, offering exciting opportunities for participation.
While exploring Feralas, be mindful of the high density of hostile mobs, which can be encountered throughout the area. However, it's crucial to exercise caution around the northern region, particularly the level 60 dungeon area known as Dire Maul. This area is teeming with elites that can pose significant challenges, making it advisable to steer clear of this vicinity.
Around levels 46 to 47, it's advisable to journey to the Hinterlands.
This zone boasts numerous kill quests and dense mob populations. Notably, it is renowned for housing the challenging Jintha'Alor elite quest lines, requiring group coordination for completion.
Although Horde players will find more quests available compared to Alliance counterparts, the Hinterlands offers viable content for both factions. I strongly endorse undertaking these quests, as they provide a rewarding and immersive experience akin to navigating an outdoor dungeon. Ensure you assemble a full group, including a tank and a healer, as you'll encounter numerous higher-level elites. Allocate a minimum of 45 minutes for this endeavor to account for its duration.
Completing this run will yield nearly a full level's worth of experience through grinding and quest turn-ins. Additionally, it grants access to the Sacred Mallet, enabling the summoning of a secret boss named Gahz'rilla within a dungeon. Furthermore, adventurers may encounter the quest "The Ancient Egg" during this run, which was previously a prerequisite for Sunken Temple.
However, its relevance may have diminished since the dungeon transitioned into a raid.
Finally, if you've reached this stage, you're on the right track, as by levels 48 to 49, you can conclude your leveling journey in Searing Gorge.
These quests can pose some challenges, so I recommend tackling them with one or two companions to ensure safety. The area is dense with both mobs and quests, and occasionally, the respawn timers may catch you off guard, especially in the depths of caves or mountains. Exercise caution.
Additionally, at this level range, I suggest undertaking some runs in Maraudon. This dungeon offers a plethora of rewarding quests and presents an enjoyable experience with valuable gear. It features two distinct wings that can be completed independently, denoted by orange and purple colors, respectively. You can obtain several quests for Maraudon in Desolace, such as "The Pariah's Instructions" located at Centaur Pariah (50,86), and "Twisted Evils" starting at Willow (62,39).
Furthermore, within the dungeon itself, you'll encounter two additional quests. "Legends of Maraudon" unfolds into three separate quests during a single run, offering significant experience gains, while the "Seed of Life" is obtained from the final boss, Princess Theradras.
There are also 3 distinct quests available for both Alliance and Horde factions, but they originate from different locations. These quests are named Shadow Shard Fragments, Vyletongue Corruption, and Corruption of the Earth and Seed.
If you intend to prepare in advance for these quests, Stranglethorn Vale (STV) is an excellent zone to begin prequesting. Ensure you visit each of the eight zones to unlock their flight paths before embarking on your journey. Additionally, resist the urge to rush through content solely to reach the maximum level. Classic emphasizes the journey of leveling, offering numerous opportunities for exploration and discovery along the way.
Do you want to be invincible in Last Epoch Arena? If so, then don’t miss this guide. Here you will find everything you need to know about Arena. Without any further ado, let’s dive right in!
First, you may be wondering, how do you actually get into the arena? To do this, you need to reach Champion’s Gate located here in Divine Era.
To find that waypoint, you just need to right-click on the arena key. This way, the map will automatically open at Champions’ Gate Waypoint, so you don’t have to manually search for it on the map. But the first time you want to reach the arena, you need to reach Champions’ Gate without teleporting to unlock the waypoint.
Champions’ Gate is actually a nice Hub-like town with Target Dummies inside that you can use to test your character’s DPS.
The next question we want to answer is: what is Arena and how does it actually play?
Arena is an endgame activity. It’s exactly what you’d expect: a closed area with waves of monsters spawning. Arenas have different layouts, with different visual themes, but they all essentially function in the same way.
There are four portals on the map from which mobs spawn. After entering the arena map, Shrines may spawn at the edge of the arena. So it’s usually best to start by moving a little from the center and see if there are any Shrines you can use.
Some arenas also have environmental hazards in the middle of the map. As you advance through the arena, monsters gain higher levels, health, and damage.
After every five waves of monsters, a few barrels will appear on the map, and you can destroy them to get Last Epoch Gold and loot. Keep an eye on them to avoid missing them like I did at first. At this time, stash and shop NPCs are also available, so you can store items to avoid full inventory.
Also, if you’re playing with other players who die during your run, they can respawn during the break after every fifth wave. Once you complete ten waves, you can move on to the next arena map.
Now, this is where the differences between the two different types of arenas begin.
Fixed forty waves of enemies in Arena of Champions. After every ten waves, you can choose modifiers for loot, enemy damage, and health.
Since this arena type has 40 waves of enemies, you have three modifiers to choose from in waves 10, 20, and 30. After wave 40, the boss of the arena appears.
Currently, Champions are divided into three types: Sentinel, Rogue and Primalist-like Champion. You need to kill Champions to complete the arena, which will reward you with loot and unlock higher difficulty levels in Arena of Champions.
And then for the second type of arena in Last Epoch, Endless Arena. The arena is what you’d expect, with endless waves of enemies. After 90 waves, you will face one of the arena’s champions.
Of course, Arena Keys also come in two types. So you might be wondering what exactly is the difference between them?
Normal arenas can be used to access either arena type. Arena Key of Memory is only useful for Endless Arena, as it allows you to start from wave 100, or half divide the highest wave number you have reached (rounded to 10). For example, Arena Key of Memory will allow you to start at wave 110 if you reached wave 215 before.
Note that you can also use Arena Key of Memory at any level of Arena of Champions, but it will have no effect in this arena type. Since Arena Key of Memory has a much lower drop rate, using it for Arena of Champions will be a waste of keys.
Sadly, the loot rewards you can earn in Last Epoch Arena are rather lackluster. The amount of useful loot you get is very low. Considering the time it takes to get the loot, you’re better off running Monolith or dungeons in the high tier.
Enemy and arena design also often result in a slow and boring experience. Sometimes enemies will spawn quickly and reach you instantly, making the arena feel like a dynamic and fast-paced experience. But unfortunately, you’ll also encounter enemies that are painfully slow.
The biggest enemy here is Drowned Husk. They take a long time to move anywhere. So you’ll experience some unpleasant downtime in the arena.
It would actually be great if all arena maps were as simple as Arena of Champions map. It was so small that we could take out ten waves of enemies easily.
Arenas provide a large amount of XP, but unfortunately, the time required to complete them does not make them an effective way to level up your character.
Hence the number one reason to visit Arena: a change of pace. If you’re tired of running Monolith repeatedly, maybe jumping into the arena for a while will give you a unique experience.
You can then also use it to test your build. Since the arena has an endless mode with scaling difficulty, it’s a great place to test how strong your character build actually is.
In addition, the online arena mode also has a ranking list, and players with the highest number of passes can become famous in the Last Epoch community. So it adds this competitive aspect to the game.
The last reason to run an arena is for the unique loot drops like Penumbra, Omen of Thunder, and Vaion’s Chariot. These items can only be obtained through Arena. Keep in mind that each of them can be obtained from specific Arena Champions.
Finally, I’ll share with you my final tips for playing in the arena.
First, keep moving. There’s a lot of visual chaos in Last Epoch, especially the more flashy character builds. Sometimes, when there’s a lot going on the screen, you simply don’t see AOE highlights of enemy attacks. To avoid dying from this attack that you can’t see, you can constantly move around, making your character a really hard target to hit.
Also, remember to open the barrel with loot and collect it every fifth wave so you don’t lose it.
Be sure to check out Shrines and use them strategically. Remember, you can stack buffs in Shrines. For example, if I see four Shrines available, I will choose the reward from two of those Shrines at the start of the map and leave two for the sixth wave of enemies on that map.
Next tip, keep your character close to the center to avoid being idle for long periods of time while waiting for enemies to slowly crawl out of the portal on the other side of the map.
Note not to use Arena Key of Memory on Arena of Champions, as this key type is less common and does not bring any benefits to that arena type.
One final tip: know your enemy. Some enemies are particularly dangerous and attack very hard. Over time, you’ll learn which enemies to attack with burst skills or which enemies to use defense cooldowns against. Pay attention and remember to kill your enemies for future runs.
This concludes Last Epoch arena guide. Of course, you’ll also encounter arena nodes as you progress through Monolith. For these nodes, some tips here apply as well. I hope you found this guide useful. See you next time!
As we all know, a new phase of WoW Classic Season of Discovery is just approaching and will release within 2 days. Today, I’m here to provide you with a closer look at some of the important adjustments planned for the highly anticipated Phase 3, which you might not yet be aware of. Let’s dive right in!
If you thought the Phase 3 announcement was a little too fast, you're not the only one. Blizzard knows that they usually would like to give us 2 weeks' notice. It is a bit frustrating, though for a lot of players to not be able to have the announcement early enough to have enough preparation.
Although there is not much time left to make adequate preparations, you can still obtain as many WoW SOD Gold as possible before this new phase in Season of Discovery.
These updates include feral Druids receiving a new helmet enchant resembling a Wolfshead Helm. This enchant grants you 20 energy every time you shift into form, augmenting the power-shifting play style, particularly beneficial for Cat Form users.
There's a potential addition of Catnip in the next phase, boosting attack speed by 30% for 30 seconds, likely obtained as a consumable in the new PVP or Emerald Dream zone. These enhancements are significant for Feral Druids, catering to their needs and play style adjustments.
Hunters might obtain the Core Hound pet, possibly becoming a favored choice with its anticipated Flame Breath ability, potentially useful in PVP scenarios. Stay tuned for these exciting developments.
There's other blaring issues, something like class tuning. In particular, something like Shaman's being ridiculously powerful now. Blizzard has taken notice of these overly powerful classes, but will also say that towards the end of a phase, we probably won't be seeing class tuning going on because you usually will have them focus their development time on basically working on the next phase.
You may have noticed some runes sharing the same slot, have interesting wordings like the Gore rune for Feral Druids. It says that a last rate swipe or Maul will reset the cooldown of Mangle, but the last rate and Mangle are on the exact same rune slot. And this is something that Blizzard is also obviously aware of, but apparently it's a tricky fix. It's something they are trying to find a solution to.
But you might also notice that some runes don't actually give you DPS increases. It actually takes 855 seconds on average for the Gore rune to proc, giving you the same energy as a single power shift, especially now with the Helm enchant. So that makes this rune quite literally one of the weakest runes of all time.
And now, just caution players to temper your expectations in the next phase. We are definitely seeing some runes seem super overpowered and some seem kind of afterthought. I think if we are vocal enough with Blizzard, they will take a look at these runes that are very much underperforming, and potentially the ones that are very much over performing.
There's a little confusion about the Blood Moon event and the new currency called Massacre Coins. If you will be able to actually use the new currency for the mount, so if you want to buy yourself a mount, but don't worry, you can actually trade the new currency down at a 1:1 ratio for the silver used before.
So you'll definitely be able to get any of the old items from the Blood Moon event at the same pace. You don't have to worry about completely hoarding all of your current currency. You could use them to gain honor really quickly right at the beginning of the next phase to try to actually hit the highest ranks and get your entire PVP set within the first week.
Shamans are amazing AOE healers, but Paladins bringing kings out scaled that towards the end. But it was really that humans had Sword weapon skill that made them so powerful in WoW Classic. At Level 60, every race will have a way to pick 2 separate weapon skills that will give you +5 weapon skill. That means that the racial of weapon skill are completely useless for both Horde and Alliance.
The only racial that is effective within PvE is going to literally just be having an increase in your attack power from the Orc racial or having an increase in your attack speed from the Troll racial. Meaning that Horde, in the aspect of racial, has a significant advantage, basically an entire extra trinket than Alliance does. So if you’re going to be trying to parse or if you’re going to be trying to speed run Horde versus Alliance.
Actually pointing out that the rep bonus for being a human, you actually get 10% more reputation for being a human, will save you a huge amount of time in the long run. As well as humans have been the undisputed kings of melee for all of WoW Classic.
It suggests that it’s somewhat acceptable for other classes or races to receive attention in the Season of Discovery, particularly because it’s a seasonal realm and not an everlasting one. Hopefully, this will diversify the gameplay. Nonetheless, it also implies that only Orcs and Trolls have racial that effectively boost DPS in PvE.
In this guide, I’ll be sharing one of my favorite POE 3.24 League starter builds, Explosive Trap Trickster. In Necropolis League, I enhanced this build and added the features we needed most, namely leveling, gear progression, and crafting sections. This build is enough to help you destroy everything early in the league! Without further ado, let’s get started.
First, I’ll show you the skill, Explosive Trap. You will throw traps and these traps will explode many times. All explosions can hit the same enemy, which is where our DPS comes from and how many traps we have.
When you view POB, you can set the number of explosions that hit the target. As always, I set it to an average blast since most enemies have a small hit range.
Now for the buffs of this build. We can automatically cast Warcry through Enduring Cry and the new Call to Arms Support. So we don’t have to press any extra buttons when mapping or fighting enemy bosses.
In addition, Enduring Cry will solve a big problem in the build, which is recovery. Warcry will give you a lot of life regen in a short period and will give you Endurance Charges. Because we are using Immortal Call as our guard skill. The uptime of the guard skill will be much greater than 1 second, which is an excellent combination.
Some players may have noticed that in this patch, they removed the reduced mana cost mods from jewels. But this isn’t a big issue for me since we’re only using one mod, so I think this build will still be good.
I know everyone is talking about Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. This patch they increased gem damage to reduce the area of effect of the explosions. This reduces the overlap of explosions, meaning less damage than before.
From my testing so far, the base Explosive Trap and Explosive Trap of Shrapnel do almost the same damage if we talk about single target damage. However, I think it’s better to clear with Shrapnel, which you can use to kill map bosses. But when you want to challenge Ubers or harder content, you need the basic Explosive Trap.
There is also a personal issue with Explosive Trap of Shrapnel, namely that you have to farm the lab for it. I think this is not a good plan because it all depends on RNG and maybe you won’t see what you want for 3 hours. But of course, if you enjoy growing gems, then go for it!
Also, there are two issues with this build. The first is mana. Our traps are very expensive in mana, so we’ll need to use Mana Flasks until the mana costs of our rings and amulets are reduced.
If you are lucky enough, or you have a little extra POE Currency, you can buy Praxis. It will easily solve your mana problem until you get the gear.
The second problem is that when you open POB, you will see that our build does not have any physical reduction. But it doesn’t matter, because we have more than 70% chance of avoiding enemy attacks, and we have enough energy shield and life pool to withstand bigger hits.
I played this build last league and completed my Atlas, defeating all endgame bosses without armor on my character. Keep in mind that you’ll get additional physical damage reduction from Endurance Charges thanks to the new support gem and Enduring Cry.
Next, let’s walk through how to navigate in my version of Path of Building.
Passive trees are the most important to a good leveling experience. You can see at the bottom, click this button and get a drop-down menu and select the current level for the corresponding tree.
First, grab a Trap Wheel here in the level 22 tree instead of going to Written in Blood. In the next one, you can choose what to pick first, but I recommend going with Snowforged and Elemental Mastery here. This is also your first lab time.
When you do the second lab, on the level 55 tree. Most of the time, you get mastery because you get Polymath Ascendancy node. The different types of masteries you assign will do more damage. So that’s why I chose a lot of masteries this time. Here again is a single small node that will be counted on the next tree.
On level 69 of the tree, you will complete the third lab and complete the campaign. I want to draw your attention to the fact that there is a node here that gives +10 Strength. Besides, if you feel you’re lacking damage, you can also get extra Curse nodes and add a second Curse to the build.
You may also want to ask some FAQs, such as the pros and cons of this build, and learn more about Transfigured Gems, mana issues, and how to solve them.
Here, I would like to talk more about leveling. As you probably know, I don’t like using other skills to level up other than my main one, so that’s why I’m not using Rolling Magma or other methods to level up here. I know this isn’t the most efficient way to complete a campaign, but for me it’s a more enjoyable experience.
I also try to include weapon progression here, what gear you can use early on, or how I did it. Even in the early stages of the league, these weapons should be cheap. Of course, this is my personal preference, but if you have something better in your pocket, I wouldn’t stop you!
Another thing that is in outrageous demand is the crafting part. You can learn how to craft items with this build with a very high success rate. Don’t forget to always double or even triple check before embarking on expensive crafting methods.
After this part is completed, only the gem part is left, which also contains the drop-down menu next to the skill set. Click on the appropriate level your character has and try using gems. Don’t worry if you can’t find the 4-link at the moment, you will find it later.
At level 38+, this is where Herald of Ash fits in. But you cannot use this Herald unless you have one of the reservation wheels found in the level 48 tree. So please keep this in mind.
Maybe you’re curious about Bandit and Pantheon. For Bandit, Alira is a good choice. She’s great for the early and mid game because of her mana regen, resistance and crit multi.
When it comes to Pantheon, Soul of Solaris must not be missed. If you haven’t been hit recently, you can upgrade this to take 8% less elemental damage. Also, this will give you a bit of movement speed and physical damage reduction.
Overall, Explosive Trap Trickster is one of my favorite skill and Asdendancy combinations. Trickster Asdendancy is very flexible, so you can easily re-spec other skills if you wish. Regardless, I hope you’ll find this league starter useful.
Welcome to this new build guide for the swift Ghostflame Lich in Last Epoch 1.0. The primary objective of this build is to swiftly navigate through the Monolith to target farm various echo rewards efficiently such as the Uniques and Exalted Items, as well as to farm Exile Mages for experimental mods.
The main skill we’re using is Ghostflame, and it deals with fire and chronic damage to us while also draining our mana when we are channeling. For this setup, we’re looking to scale the initial hit of the Ghostflame, not the ailments from it, to one-shot enemies as we go.
To deal damage and be fast, we need a lot of points for the Ghostflame skill to grab all the damage multipliers. The great thing is that the skill has so many tags on it, scaling from a lot of different sources like fire, Necrotic damage over time, spell channeling, and movement.
With this build,we can get over 200% movement speed, and we can basically stay in Ghostflame all the time without having to worry that much about getting our mana drained.
With mana, finish with Ghostflame, and this will lower the overall cost of the skill. By also using Wandering Spirits and picking up the Infuse Soul passive, provide a 15% chance to gain 12 mana whenever a spirit expires. Then, we’re also using Transplant with a Pale Blood passive, which will give us 30 flat mana when we use Transplant.
Telf'un's Mirage is a small source as it also provides us 2 mana gains when we dodge while channeling potions is a huge part of this build as well. By using Divine Girdle with the experimental mod 'mana gained on potion use', we can grant us up to 40 flat mana whenever we use a potion. While on the subject of potions, it sits very well with all the other things we’re using for this build.
One of them is a Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, which will give us up to 40 Necrotic damage to melee attacks and spells. It also takes up to 4% less void, Necrotic, and poison damage for 4 seconds on potion use. Exsanguinous is another item which also will grant us up to 30% attack speed, cast speed, and movement speed if we have used a potion in the past 4 seconds. Some other gear you can choose depends on your amount of Last Epoch Gold.
Ghostflame: Wraith Form grants additional dodge rating per intelligence while channeling Ghostflame. Spectral Menace reduces the channel cost by up to 70%. Spirit Of Dread provides extra movement speed while channeling Ghostflame and converts it into a movement skill.
Doom Surge adds further movement speed. Fiery Desecration allows Ghostflame to deal damage in a full circle, albeit with an increased channel cost. It's beneficial if mana can be sustained. Domain Of Torment increases the damage multiplier. Disdain reduces damage taken while channeling the Ghostflame skill.
Atrocity provides an extra damage multiplier. The Decrepit Mortals release a curse on enemies for a short duration, causing them to take an additional 15% more damage over time. When triggers Banshee, enemies will also fear, and Ghostflame will deal more direct damage to them, up to 75%.
Reaper Form: Soul Shroud gives us armor per point of intelligence. Vile Shroud provides Necrotic resistance and poison resistance per point of intelligence. Soul for a Soul increases damage. Reaper's Curse adds additional increased damage. Death Comes Quickly grants the Swiftness buff upon killing an enemy.
These buffs will increase movement speed by 1% and can stack up to 10 times. With the Haunting, we have a chance to apply Mark for Death on enemies on hit. This is triggered by using Death Seal as it counts as a hit.
Transplant: Pale Blood gives us 30 mana when using Transplant. When hitting an enemy with Transplant, we gain mana per hit. Acolyte's Fervor grants the Haste and Frenzy buff upon using Transplant.
Squeamish applies fear on departure, while the other option applies fear on arrival. Fleeting Form provides extra cooldown recovery. Bone Armor grants the Bone Armor buff, providing extra armor, less damage taken, and increasing the duration of the Bone Armor.
Death Seal: This is another skill that we're using. This will seal our health, preventing us from going above the current value and deal damage to us. Moratorium increases the duration of Death Seal. Soul Stability prevents health loss from effects draining a percentage of current health.
The Quick and the Dead grants the Haste Buff upon releasing Death Seal. Doomcall amplifies the damage of Death Seal waves for each stack of Damned on us. Mortal Pulse triggers death waves every second while sealed. Tachycardia increases the frequency of death waves.
Desperate Shroud provides additional armor and stun avoidance per 10 missing health. Deadlock makes it so if our health is above 33% of your maximum health when we activate Death Seal, this will reduce it to 33% of our maximum health, making us able to stay on low life.
Wandering Spirits: Infusing Soul allows us to gain mana. We get a 15% chance to gain 12 mana per Spirit when they expire. Sheltering Spirit provides extra Ward and medium just for increased mana efficiency for the skill. Thin Veil ensures we get more spirits. Terrifying Presence ensures enemies near Spirits are also feared.
Drained Will makes Wandering Spirit also Shred resistance of nearby enemies. This helps with half of our damage from Ghostflame, as the skill is both fire and Necrotic-based. Sins of the Forgotten makes Wandering Spirit now also inflict enemies around them with the Damned ailment.
For the idols, you want to pick up mana efficiency with the Ghostflame. For the suffix, you could go with either resist, health, or Ward retention. The chance to apply fear is amazing, as we also get a 75% damage multiplier from the Ghostflame passive to feared enemies, and this will help to sustain that debuff when Death Seal is hitting enemies.
We also have 2 Grand Bone Idols with Ward per second when channeling Ghostflame and also with increased spell damage while on low life.
Next, for blessings, I recommend using Grand Echo of Solarum, Grand Light of the Moon, Grand Survival of Might, Grand Defiance of Yulia and Grand Patience of Herkir.
Hi, builders! I have a smooth Wave of Conviction Elementalist that offers fast clearing and strong survivability, and can also transition into other endgame Elementalist builds for the Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. I can’t wait to show you of build!
This build delivers buttery-smooth cleanup and shreds through everything in a flash. This is definitely more of a map buster and I have set this up to be very tanky. During the early stages of the game, you might feel vulnerable as you prepare yourself. It’s difficult to get suppression early on with an Elementalist.
However, in the endgame, it can actually have 40,000 points of armor before the flask, which is great. It should be able to do all the normal bosses and get you 4 Watchstones. But if you’re looking for an insane boss killer, this is not the build for you. This is just for blasting maps fast, and it’ll be a lot of fun.
It’s relatively simple to play this build. While clearing, we can actually use an Obliteration Imbued Wand so you get a good wipe out. Then we have Vaal Flameblast. We’re only using Vaal Flameblast for when there’s something really tanky or facing a boss.
When you are fighting a boss, you want to make sure that you have your Arcanist Brand down, and what that does is flammability, Elemental weakness, and Flame Surge, giving you considerable damage.
Now, on bosses in particular, we really want to take advantage of the tremendous damage we’re getting from Vaal Flameblast. That’s why we’re using this through Arcanist Brand, so the Arcanist Brand will keep cursing things and it doesn’t really count as you casting a curse spell because you’re casting Arcanist Brand. Because of that, you can basically make the Vaal Flameblast Ignite last forever.
Next up, we can go to skills. At the early stage, we can start with Rolling Magma. This is very standard for a lot of builds. And then you can have Frostblink, Flame Wall and Holy Flame Totem. With Flame Wall, you want to make the projectile go through that. Anything that goes through the Flame Wall gets more damage.
At Level 28, we switch to a very standard Armageddon Brand with the Cremation setup. So, that means that for clearing, you’re mostly using Armageddon Brand. For bosses, you’re throwing down Cremation, which you need to desecrate first to make corpses.
The gear can be very easily and quickly to set up. The focus is on life and resistance, triggering a longing to challenge suppression. You’re also going to need some dexterity in gear, but life and suppression are what you’re looking for, and early on, just focus on getting resist capped. Choose the gear that best suits you based on how much POE Currency you have.
We have a separate setup for clearing and that is because Obliteration will feel so good while clearing. On an Elementalist, all damage can ignite. That includes your chaos damage, so those explosions will be exploding and igniting.
But if you’re doing like Uber Elders or something, then you can switch out to a weapon like this for even more single target. One thing that might be a little frustrating in this build is that since we don't cast very often, we really need some critical chance. That’s why you can get a crit chance on the scepter.
You can roll crit chance on a flask, and that is to keep Elemental Overload uptime. There will be like a little diamond on the skill, so it’ll be a diamond on the Vaal Flameblast or a diamond on the Wave of Conviction, and that means that it’s on for that skill.
Now, for some extra defense, we can use the Energized Armor. What it does is these nodes have energy shield on them and it basically turns that into armor. You will have 57,000 armor with a good Granite Flask, so that’s actually pretty substantial.
If you’re feeling that you are very tanky and maybe you want a bit more damage, what you can do, especially for softcore players, is you can get rid of Bastion of Elements but you can take Shaper of Storms instead, and what that will do is that’ll give really high damage shocks so they’ll take on a lot of monsters 50% more damage.
Later on, we have a little more advanced gear. This is when you’re like moving towards Tier 16s and you’re starting to get suppression capped. The Pig-faced Bascinet helmet is crafted with the Essence of Horror and that gives you that socketed gems deal 30% more damage.
You may want to try to use the new Veiled Orb. However, we don’t know what kind of rarity or cost is going to be around that. So, you will use Essence of Horror on a helmet until you have. Then you’re doing suffixes cannot be changed in a Veiled Orb, and just hope you hit the +2 AOE gems. This is where we put our Vaal Flameblast. It basically makes it a pseudo 5 and a half link.
Obviously, we want the physical damage taken as fire because we don’t have as much armor, and this will actually make our armor more potent. Other than that, lots of Armor Innovation gear. The bases are the best in the slot ones, like Full Dragonscale.
With Jade Amulet, you can get +1 Fire gem levels would be huge or +2. That’s what we’re going to look at later, but damage over time multiplier is great. We can opt for Amethyst Rings early on for chaos. In the endgame, it’s getting a bit more advanced and you can target towards, especially like Eldritch implicit modifier with +2 amulet.
Especially you do want to focus on chaos resistance because later you do want to replace the Amethyst Rings with Unset Rings so that you can get the Divine Blessing support gem and Haste. But, in the early game, it’s going to be hard to chaos resistance cap without Amethyst Rings.
With Path of Exile 3.24 launching soon, here we’ll review everything we know so far about Necropolis League mechanics and rewards, as well as the implications of this League mechanic on what build and farming strategies you should be playing. If you want to get a head start when entering the league, be sure not to miss this guide. Let’s get started!
First, let's talk about everything we know so far about the league mechanics.
Necropolis is a crafting league that has many similarities to Bestiary, Harvest and Delve.
Before entering each area, you’ll see a UI pop-up, Lantern of Arimor. This UI will show you some Spirits, their associated monster modifiers, and each monster pack that can be spawned locally in the area.
Using this UI, you can move spirits onto any monster you want and assign modifiers to parts of those monsters. Lantern UI also displays detailed information about monster packs in the area, including key information such as pack density. It allows you to assign modifiers to monsters to diminish or reduce effects, or maximize bonuses from high-tier or beneficial modifiers.
It is worth noting that this league mechanism affects all zones, including league zones such as Heist Contracts and sub-zones such as Abyssal Depths.
What I really want to emphasize about this mechanic is that it is mandatory. You cannot opt out of this mechanism. Every area you enter has Haunted Spirits, which make monsters stronger and more dangerous. But you do want to make sure your build can handle these difficult spikes.
There are two types of Spirits you can find in Lantern: the more common Haunted Spirits and the rare Devoted Spirits.
Haunted Spirits come in various tiers. The higher the tier, the stronger the monster modifier, and provide better rewards for slain monsters haunted by those spirits. These better rewards come as increased chances for monsters to gain “Unresolved Anguish”.
This simply means that monsters will drop collectible corpses when slain, increasing the drop chance of Embers of The Allflame, and increasing the chance of getting Devoted Spirits for each haunted monster killed for future Lanterns.
It’s worth noting that all of this only applies to monsters that spawn locally in the area. Later, monsters spawned from the league mechanic will not be haunted, and in fact will not even appear on Lantern.
The second type is Devoted Spirits. Unlike Haunted Spirits, these Spirits grant modifiers with beneficial effects on the player. This can include Magic Find, increased XP, and monster spawning things like Lesser Shrines, Strongboxes, and Nameless Seers.
Your chance of gaining Devoted modifier increases based on the number and level of haunted spirits you killed in the previous area. This means that placing higher level, more difficult modifiers on a high density of monsters will result in more Devoted Spirits appearing in subsequent areas.
If you’re not interested in the crafting part of Necropolis, this could very well be a way to flesh out your map and get extra rewards. Not only are you likely to have highly profitable Devoted Spirits, but it’s worth noting that these modifiers may increase the monster’s item count and rarity. Whatever modifier you gain will allow you to expand your loot.
Next up is Ember of The Allflame. These are consumable items that drop haunted monsters, and can be used with Lantern UI to replace monster packs with different special monster packs. Most of these special monsters have additional items to drop, including some very exciting ones that drop tattoos!
It’s worth noting that these special monster packs will inherit the density of the monsters they replace, so you may want to use them on the densest monster packs available to maximize the number on the map.
The important thing about Embers of The Allflame is that at least some of them can only be dropped from specific content or even specific monsters. It’s possible these items will be linked to specific maps or content types, but that’s unclear at the moment, and it’s something we’ll have to figure out once the league goes live.
The ultimate effect of Haunted Spirits is Unresolved Anguish. A certain percentage of haunted monsters will have this modifier, which makes them collectible corpses when killed.
These corpses have a crafting modifier and inherit the monster’s name, monster type, and monster level. In addition, the developers also stated that at least some monsters from Embers of The Allflame have exclusive crafts associated with them.
If this applies to all monsters, and popular crafts only come from specific monsters or maps, then much of the league’s strategy will revolve around trying to farm those specific crafts.
Finally, it’s time to talk about the crafting part of this crafting league, Exorcism Crafting.
The corpses you collect from slain, haunted monsters can be consumed in large quantities to create single items. Each corpse has a crafting modifier that affects the items created.
How it works is that you’ll travel to Necropolis Graveyard, bury any number of corpses, and then exorcise all of them, and the items you craft will gain all of their combined effects.
It is said that there are many graves, and if you are willing to invest more POE Currency, you can craft an incredibly powerful item.
However, this design is far from deterministic. You can’t even choose the item base of the item you’re crafting, only broad categories like “Shield” or “Boots.”
In order to get the item base you want, you will need to use corpse modifiers that affect the item base. One of the new corpse modifiers is called “Modifier Tier Rate”. This is a new way to make items have higher level affixes.
While this modifier allows you to gain higher-level affixes, it doesn’t actually ensure that you actually gain that affix. This means you need to combine Modifier Tier Rate with other modifiers to increase your chances of rolling that type of affix.
Another interesting use of Modifier Tier Rate is to use it on affix types you don’t want, to reduce the chance of getting that affix in your item. Using them in this way is like using a much weaker version of Fossil that prevents certain types of affixes from rolling on items.
So what farming strategy is best for Necropolis? Since the endgame got a huge overhaul in POE 3.24, with the addition of tier 17 maps and a massive scarab rework. Compared to previous leagues, it feels difficult to make any reliable predictions this time around.
However, I do believe we can glean some important insights from all this.
For one, the rewards associated with crafting don’t match other league mechanics. Only monsters local to the map will be haunted, which means other league mechanics spawning in monsters not only won’t give you any corpses to craft, they’ll even just slow you down.
Embers, on the other hand, seem to be designed specifically for players who want to ignore crafting elements and focus solely on farming drops. Embers and their rewards will probably increase as the number of items increases. So if you decide to focus on corpse collecting, you’ll need to find ways to maximize the number of local monsters on the map.
As far as taking advantage of league mechanics, most will just slow you down. The only league mechanic that has the potential to increase the number of local monsters on a map is Shrine, but I’m not 100% sure it actually works. However, some of the new Scarabs will definitely come into play and can add additional haunted monsters to your map.
Embers farming has two parts: farming Embers themselves, or using embers to farm the monsters they spawn in the map. The details of Embers drops are currently unclear, so it’s difficult to assess whether players focused on farming Embers will do both, or just one or the other.
But the goal is to grow more Embers as you use them, and maybe even over-maintain to sell the excess Embers! Because you are replacing monster packs with Embers, you need to make sure to always replace high-density monster packs.
You may even want to consider running a map with a less efficient layout and more monster packs overall in order to maximize the value you get from your expensive Embers.
Finally, let’s talk about the factors you need to consider when creating Necropolis league builds.
What I really want to emphasize here is that this league will be more rigorous than the standard league. This league mechanic is mandatory. It makes monsters stronger, and you can’t opt out. On top of that, this patch introduces a lot of new and challenging endgame content. Therefore, I highly recommend you play with proven meta builds.
Because this is a crafting league focused on crafting powerful rare items, builds that use a lot of unique items will be at a disadvantage here. They won’t be able to take full advantage of the powerful crafting options Necropolis offers.
As for the specific type of build you should be playing, you have to take a bit of a gamble here. The fact that corpses don’t scale with the loot-increasing effect of increasing difficulty means that a clear speed build that clears the map as quickly as possible at the expense of high-end power is probably the right choice.
However, we still don’t know much about how the endgame will play out. If the best corpses come from side content like Heist or Delve, then clear speed may not be king. But a full build is probably a safe bet.
That’s all for this guide. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on Necropolis. Are you going to focus on corpses or embers? Any thoughts on all the new Scarabs we’re receiving? See you next time!
I’ve been playing Last Epoch consistently since its release and have spent hundreds of hours in the game. Therefore, I have also put together some tips and tricks to make our gaming experience better.
Even experienced players can make some mistakes, so check out this guide before you start to make your adventure a smoother one! Without any further delay, let’s get straight into the action.
Auto cast is especially useful for builds that have skills on cooldown that you want to recast as soon as they become available. An example here is Void Knight’s Devouring Orb ability. If your character is strong enough, you can also use this feature to a semi-AFK farm in the arena.
To activate auto-cast, you must assign the ability button you want to auto-cast to one of the numeric keys on your keyboard.
For example, here I’ve assigned a secondary button to number pad three to keep my usual button mapping intact. Next, press and hold the ability button on the number pad. Then click Num Lock to disable it.
If you want to disable auto-cast, you can simply turn on Num Lock and press the ability button again.
You can put points into multiple Mastery Trees so that you are not forced into Passive Tree of your own mastery. Therefore, you can actually unlock and use almost all active skills from other masteries as well.
The exceptions here are unique mastery skills, such as Storm Totem for Shaman or Werebear Form for Druid. These unique skills are locked to specific masteries, but everything else is fair game.
If you want to teleport to another location, you usually need to hold down the left mouse button and click the “travel” icon at the bottom of the screen, which wastes not only Last Epoch Gold but also time.
Instead, you simply right-click on a node and your character will instantly teleport to the selected location. This works both in the world map and in Monolith.
This tip is related to the crafting system in Last Epoch.
Sometimes you remove dropped items from an existing configuration that are of no use to you. The item will have some unwanted stats or not be the type of item you are looking for. But you may need to add it in the future. This is where these two runes come in: Rune of Removal and Rune of Shattering!
By the way, affixes are the stats on the lower part of the item. For example, high-level skill affixes are not that common drops and are very important for endgame builds. So you might want to extract them from items.
Most players will use Rune of Shattering to destroy items and obtain shards, which is the easiest way. But the problem is that this process does not guarantee that you will get all the shards.
As the rune’s description states: Shattering creates a random number of shards. This means you may not get the affix shards you really want.
To avoid losing potential shards, you can use Rune of Removal on the item. This rune removes one random affix at a time. So you may actually need up to four attempts to get the affix shards you want. You’re better off using Rune of Removal when you really want a specific affix or there are fewer than four affixes on the item.
Of course, the best thing about this process are the two affixes items that give you a 50% chance of getting the shards you crave.
Do you often skip nodes in Monolith because they only bring you a measly amount of XP? Note, however, that the effects of Tomes of Experience increase as you get higher in level.
At around level 75, my character gets about 1% level XP from each tome, so I get 3% from all three tomes. This is not cause for concern.
But when I run node, my Warlock is level 94 on Empowered Monolith, has 140 corruptions, and I’m getting about 7% more XP from all three Tomes. That’s a huge amount of XP for this level!
Also, have you ever really looked at XP and favor rewards you gain in a faction? Each Tome will give you about 500 favor, which means you can get 1500 favor for each Quest Echo.
Anyway, plus everything you get from running the map. This may not seem like much, but it will quickly earn you a lot of favor! Also, you can use Tomes of Experience to quickly level up your skills after respec.
Besides, Arena nodes are also an excellent source of XP for you to level up for the endgame.
I’ve done some testing and on average Arena gives a better XP percentage than the usual Monolith Echoes. Monster density is also a big factor here. You don’t have to hunt around for mobs.
Of course, some arena maps are better than others, but on average, all maps are very good for your XP gain. So if you need to level up quickly to meet the requirements for certain items, be sure to clear the arena to get to your goal faster.
During Early Access, you can test your damage on dummies in End of Time Zone. But after patch 1.0, the dummy here no longer exists.
So if you’re like me, you’re probably confused as to where this dummy went. You can actually find dummies in Champion’s Gate settlement. The gate is in exactly the same location as the entrance to the arena.
We used to have to manually find the entrance to each dungeon, so finding the dungeon you’re looking for can take some time and effort. But there is actually an easier way.
You can right-click on a Dungeon or Arena Key to open the map and focus on the entrance to that specific area. This tip can make your life easier.
You can avoid arena nodes in Monolith. There are two ways to check if a node is an arena. First, you can left-click on a node to see the name of the map. If it were, it would say Arena. Alternatively, you can hover over a node to see if it offers normal or less stability.
This assumes you’ve cleared Echo objective and summoned the portal, but maybe you saw a chest or shrine and want to continue exploring the map. But you might worry that backtracking to that portal will waste a lot of time.
This is where the “T” button comes into play. Once the portal is open, you can press the “T” key to re-summon it at your location at any time, saving yourself a lot of trouble.
These are my top 10 tips to make your life easier in Last Epoch. What do you think of these tips? Do you know of any other exciting tips? Please share it! See you next time!