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I will guide you through a fun build for the Occultist featuring a new Transfigured spell - the new Cold Snap of Power in Path of Exile 3.23. It is seemingly the ideal spell, with very high base damage and effectiveness of the added damage, a 10% base Critical Strike Chance, and very fast cast speed. The only downside here is that it has a cooldown, which you can bypass by sacrificing power charges.
The Cold Snap itself can generate power charges on critical strikes, and if you pair this spell with the Power Charge on Critical Support at max quality, you will have over 100% chance to gain power charges when you hit with Critical Strike. With such a high base crit chance, it is trivial to reach the cap.
The Occultist is the best ascendancy for this skill. It grants you a lot of cold damage, access to additional curse, and boosts your damage and area of effect for each power charge you have. However, if you rely on energy charges to scale up your damage, spending energy charges to avoid cooldowns can be very contradictory.
The Cold Snap of Power removes the damage over time portion of the original spell but has much better hit damage. You will be easily able to Freeze or heavily Chill all enemies in the game. You will get insane damage bonuses for every additional power charge you obtain. The build is moderately tanky due to high evasion, immunity to Elemental Ailments, and a high amount of maximum life sourced from the Utula's Hunger. You can use Enfeeble as your third curse, heavily reducing the damage of affected enemies. The clear speed is great. Your cold snap can cover a wide area, shattering all enemies caught by it. The single-target damage is very good and scales with your investments very well.
You will need the fundamental unique items to start playing with this build. Rare items with basic defenses will be sufficient at first but should be upgraded as soon as your POE Currency allows.
Interacting with your charges demands unique items. The Utula's Hunger armor grants a lot of maximum life and significantly reduces the price of all other items since you don’t need maximum life. modifiers on them.
The unique Jewels are very powerful, even in the most basic version. Void Battery grants additional power charge, cast speed, Critical Strike Chance, and a lot of spell damage. You should use 2 of them. You might be tempted to use the Malachai's Loop shield for even more power charges, but it makes spending them very difficult.
The Badge of the Brotherhood is another important element of every power charge stacker. It raises your frenzy charge limit to be equal to power charges, which in this build means 36% more damage and cast speed. It also lowers the cooldown of your Frostblink.
To take full advantage of the maximum power charge, you can use Ralakesh’s Impatience Boots. These boots make it easier to gain Frenzy and Endurance charges, which are usually hard to generate. Charges must be generated in order to spend them.
Militant Faith converts nearby Keystone into Inner Conviction Keystone, which grants you more damage per power charge but disables generating frenzy charges, which you bypass with your boots. Ideally, it should give you useful bonuses for each devotion but doesn’t convert any of the picked up notables. Atula’s Hunger grants tons of Maximum life and lowers the burden on your other items. It should be corrupted for plus 2 levels for AOE gems and linked to tainted fusings. Doing so will make coloring with tainted chromatics much easier, as those ignore the attribute requirements of items.
Watcher's Eye is a very useful jewel for this build. You can use it to obtain Spell suppression, Life Leech, redirect a portion of physical damage to be taken as Elemental, or simply boost your damage with Hatred or Zealotry. The Heatshiver helmet can be corrupted to give additional power charge. It would grant you tons of damage, but you would need to get plenty of mana reservation efficiency on your Jewels or readjust your aura setup. It also doesn’t provide an energy shield, which would make sustaining casting harder.
On your rare items, you will need Spell suppression, Resistances, and Attributes to improve the damage. You should look for cast speed and Critical Strike multiplier. It is important to have a corrupted implicit on any of your Jewels that grant 2% reservation efficiency, so your Leech won’t stop once you fill 50% maximum life with Petrified Blood. You can get a lot of mana reservation efficiency, with Essence and Eldritch implicit. It should also provide Attributes or Resistance.
You can opt for an additional power charge, but you would probably need to readjust your auras, as it is hard to have both modifiers at once. At first, you can use a regular rare armor with bonuses to maximum life, spell suppression, energy shield, resistances, and Aura effect. When doing so, though, you will also need maximum life modifiers on all other rare items. It is easier to assemble, but you will miss roughly 1,000 maximum life and 2 bonus gem levels for your major spell.
Here, you should focus on defensive bonuses such as Resistance, Spell suppression, or Attributes. Although there is some damage to consider, the primary significance lies in the Eldritch implicits that apply Unnerve and Exposure on enemies. Energy shield recharge rate can significantly improve your sustain.
Your belt is another defensive item. Look for resistance and strength. You can craft a modifier that grants energy shield regeneration while a rare enemy is nearby to improve your sustain. You should use the Stygian Vice for the additional Abyss Jewel socket. Abyss Jewel is the best target to obtain the corrupted implicit that grants reservation efficiency. In addition to that, it should offer maximum life, Resistances, Attributes, and, if preferred, cast speed and Critical Strike multiplier. Jewels do not count as equipped items.
On your rare rings, you should get a lot of Resistances and Attributes to improve your damage. You should look for cast speed and crit multiplier. Make sure you can sustain the improved cast speed. Crafting mana cost reduction will also help in that regard. Make sure to concentrate on maximum life, missing resistances, and Critical Strike multiplier. It can also provide a bit of mana reservation efficiency, which will be essential if you want to use a helmet with an additional power charge.
Thanks to Cluster Jewel, you can get the Doryani's Lesson notable, which grants your life Leech. Pair it with 2 other useful modifiers depending on your budget. The Cold to the Core notable is effective in this build because you require numerous attributes for your gems. Taste of Hate is a great defensive flask that grants a decent amount of protection against physical and cold damage. Make sure to not include it when you balance your resistance, as the uptime on this flask is not perfect.
For your remaining flasks, I recommend using Quartz Flask with mana cost of skills reduction, Jade Flask with an evasion rating bonus, Quicksilver Flask with cast speed bonus, and a Life Flask with bleeding.
Cold Snap of Power deals with high cold damage in the area. Cooldowns can be avoided by consuming power charges. It has the highest Critical Strike chance in the game and has a 30% chance to generate a power charge if you critically hit an enemy. You can use the Spell Cascade Support for better area coverage and potential overlaps if you aim correctly, but it is harder to land 3 hits than it used to be before the change.You can instead use the Bonechill Support to increase the damage of the single hit, making it easier to Freeze.
Grace grants a lot of Evasion rating and helps you improve it further. It also has very potent available modifiers on the Watcher's Eye Jewel. Purity of Elements grants immunity to all Elemental ailments and provides plenty of Elemental resistances, which saves you a lot of trouble gearing up.
If you have enough resistance, you can swap it to Zealotry Aura. Petrified Blood delays the damage from incoming hits, making them easier to manage. It makes your Leech more effective and enables the Pain Attunement Keystone for 30% more damage. Vitality grants life regeneration and allows you to gain Life Leech via Watcher’s Jewel. To decrease your mana reserve, you can keep it low. You should link your main auras with the Enlightened support to reduce their mana reservation.
You will also need a bit of reservation efficiency in your gear. The Herald of Ice inflicts cold damage on your spells and detonates it around foes that have been crushed. You could replace it with Arctic Armor to gain physical damage reduction while casting. The Arrogance causes linked auras to reserve life instead of mana. If you get at least 1% Global reservation efficiency, your Leech won’t stop upon filling the Petrified Blood limit. Zealotry improves your spell damage and critical strike chance. You can also use the Hatred Aura instead.
The major difference comes from the relevant modifiers on the Watcher’s Eye. The Divine Blessing changes your permanent Aura into a temporary buff that doesn’t reserve any mana but requires an upfront mana cost, which you can pay using the Energy Shield thanks to the Eldritch Battery Keystone.
Frostbite is your primary curse that lowers the cold resistance and makes your freeze last longer on the affected enemies. Enfeeble lowers the damage and accuracy of your enemies. You can also use Temporal Chains to slow them down and further improve the duration of your freeze. Elemental Weakness lowers all Elemental resistance of your foes. You can use the third curse thanks to the Whispers of Doom notable.
Arcanist Brand is a brand skill that can attach to an enemy and cast all linked spells in rapid succession. Thanks to this skill, you will apply all 3 curses with one button. To apply your curses, you can also use the new Bane of Condemnation, which has a higher cast speed but significantly lower area of effect.
The regular Bane is not a good choice, as it lowers the effectiveness of your curses. Frostblink is a very good movement skill for this build. It deals enough damage to kill weak enemies, and the cooldown is heavily reduced by your amulet. If you find yourself out of charges very often, you should consider using any skill with a fast hit rate. You might need this setup against bosses if your Critical Strike Chance is still low or if enemies can steal your power charges. It shouldn’t be necessary during regular gameplay. Steelskin creates a protective barrier that absorbs incoming damage and stops bleeding effects.
You should kill all Bandits in Act 2 to be rewarded with 2 additional passive tree points by Eramir. For your major Pantheon power, you should pick the Soul of Arakaali, as it helps you with mitigating damage over time effects, which are the major weakness of Petrified Blood builds. As the minor Pantheon power, we recommend using the Soul of Shakari. It further reduces the damage you take from Poisons and Chaos Damage.
You will need a very high Critical Strike Chance to reliably generate power charges, so you should use any other cold spell to level up. You can start scaling crit early, but the best choice would be any cold damage over time spell, for example, the regular Cold Snap. It doesn’t require crit and scales very well with just cold spell passives.
During the campaign on the passive tree, you will pick up 2 additional maximum power charges. The third one should be allocated by the anointment on your amulet. This build utilizes 3 very powerful Keystones:
In Path of Exile: Affliction, as you venture through Viridian Wildwood, you can find a new Unique Shield: Flawed Refuge.
This new item seems to be overlooked by many. This guide aims to break down the usefulness of this new unique item versus existing mechanics to mitigate the impact of upcoming penetrating hits.
So let’s see what this new Unique Shield does: it adds Armor and Evasion. This is a very poor base type, so it doesn’t have much effect even after increasing it. And there are a lot of extra attack block opportunities here too.
Then we have two big modifiers on this shield. You take 100% elemental damage from hits that block and 40% elemental damage from hits that take physical damage. Both statistics immediately exist in the game in other forms.
What we have access to in the game is dedicated to transferring physical damage to another damage type, such as Lightning Coil, which is very popular now. It converts 50% of physical damage taken on hit as lightning damage.
But this modifier on this Flawed Refuge Shield is to transfer 40% of all elemental damage you take into physical damage, with Fire, Cold, Lightning damage coming from hits.
So the reason there isn’t a lot of discussion about this shield is mainly because it’s quite niche meta. The focus now is on shifting as much physical damage as possible into other damage types so you can mitigate the damage through resistance. But that doesn’t mean there’s no use for Flawed Refuge.
So let’s first look at a basic example of Flawed Refuge.
Let’s say a character has 75% elemental resistance and 20,000 points of armor. It takes 3,000 lightning damage without a shield, which is mitigated by 75% resistance.
However, when equipped with a shield, it will take 750 lightning damage, 40% of which is treated as physical damage. Therefore, 1,800 points of damage are considered lightning damage and 1,200 points of damage are considered physical damage.
It can mitigate lightning damage by reducing resistance to 450, and armor can mitigate physical damage. In this case, it reduced physical damage by 77%, bringing it down to 276 for a total of 726 damage taken.
So you can see that the damage taken is very similar in both calculations, but in this case, Flawed Refuge setting is slightly more effective at mitigating the damage taken.
How about more damage? Let’s say the character takes 10,000 lightning damage. Without a shield, lightning damage is mitigated purely by 75% resistance.
Taking 2,500 points of spiritual damage when equipped with a shield, 6,000 of which are treated as lightning. Resisted by 75% of resistance, bringing it down to 1,500 damage. The remaining 4,000 points of damage are treated as physical damage.
In this case, armor provides much less relief. Because it does more damage, the armor reduces physical damage by 50%, bringing this down to 2,000 for a total of 3,500 damage taken.
You can see that due to the nature of the armor application, Flawed Refuge setup is much weaker when taking larger hits.
There is one very important thing to note here, however, and that is the type of damage taken after the mitigation occurred in the second example. The unshielded setup takes 2,500 lightning damage, while Flawed Refuge setup ends up taking 1,500 lightning damage and 2,000 physical damage. This is important for damage type properties.
Let’s talk about Non-Damaging Ailments first. These Ailments are based on damage taken from specific elements.
The severity of Non-Damaging Ailments is measured based on the amount of damage taken relative to Ailment Threshold of a specific type.
So if we take the previous example. Assuming 10,000 points of lightning damage are a critical hit, this means it has the inherent property of causing shock.
In this example, Flawed Refuge setting reduced lightning damage by 40% compared to the normal setting after mitigation. Although it takes overall more damage, the portion of damage taken as physical damage does not cause shock by default. As such, Flawed Refuge setups may suffer from weaker shocks, so this isn’t limited to Non-Damaging Ailments either.
So now let’s talk about Elemental Penetration. I believe this will be the main use case parameter for this shield damage type, another property related to that specific damage type.
Let’s look at another example. A character with 80% elemental resistance and 25,000 armor with 3 Endurance Charges. The character takes about 13,000 points of cold damage and has 25% Cold Penetration without a shield, with damage mitigated purely by resistance. In this case, penetration provided 55% relief.
A character equipped with a shield takes 5,850 points of cold damage. 7,800 points of damage are treated as cold damage, which is mitigated by resistance reduced to 3,510. Then the remaining 40% is considered physical damage. Combined, this will provide a 61% physical damage reduction, bringing this down to 2,028 for a total of 5,538 damage.
Flawed Refuge setting in this example does less damage. Because it avoids Cold Penetration which takes 40% damage. And it’s also worth noting here that characters may also take weaker cold damage due to taking much less cold damage.
Note that Overwhelm has a damage type attribute related to physical damage, allowing damage to bypass a specified amount of physical damage reduction.
For example, in Expedition, you can explode a wreckage, causing all monsters to overwhelm 100% physical damage reduction. But if you’re using this shield normally, you probably don’t want to do that.
Next, let’s talk about some synergies you can take advantage of with a Flawed Refuge.
Starting with the most obvious one, that’s Divine Flesh. You can get this Keystone from Glorious Vanity Timeless Jewel, and it causes 50% of all elemental damage to be treated as chaos damage.
When used with Flawed Refuge, a total of 90% of elemental hit damage will be diverted to other damage types. This combination of mechanisms is therefore powerful in mitigating the effects of elemental penetration.
Keep in mind that you still need to limit elemental resistances, as 50% of elemental damage will still be calculated as normal over time.
If you have enough POE Currency budget, you can also add Doppelganger Guise to this synergy to make it even more powerful. This is a unique Body Armor dropped from Uber Maven. This reduces physical and chaos damage by 40%, and combines perfectly with Divine Flesh and Flawed Refuge.
In this case, no matter what type of original damage you took, just using modifiers will mitigate most of the damage.
Then there’s Fourth Vow, another unique Body Armour. It applies full armor calculations to chaos damage taken on hit and when combined with Divine Flesh. This one is powerful at negating the effects of large amounts of elemental damage.
However, when combined with Flawed Refuge, it creates an interesting setup. You’ll be motivated to stack a lot of armor to mitigate all incoming damage types from hits.
Remember that armor is applied to each damage type individually, which is why split damage types are very effective for the application of armor to mitigate damage.
As such, Flawed Refuge has some synergy with Juggernaut’s Unbreakable Notable and its natural ability to mitigate physical damage through armor stacking and Endurance Charge generation.
In this case, Juggernaut will transfer a portion of elemental damage into physical damage. This will allow him to provide more mitigating late resistance against the resulting smaller hits.
Damaging Ailments work differently than Non-Damaging Ailments. Damaging Ailments are Poison, Bleed and Ignite, whose application is based on the damage of the original attack rather than the damage taken.
Therefore, transferring damage to another type has no effect on whether the hit causes Damaging Ailment or the severity of Damaging Ailment caused.
For example, there’s a chance that Ignite’s fire damage hits will still deal Ignite based on the full fire damage of the hit, even if you have Flawed Refuge equipped.
Meanwhile, this also means that the transferred physical damage you take using Flawed Refuge will never cause Poison or Bleed to you by default, even though you also have a chance to suffer from these diseases due to vulnerability and so on.
Finally, let’s talk briefly about this modifier on the shield: You take 100% elemental damage from blocked hits. Be very careful here as these modifiers will stack and end up making you take more damage than your initial attack.
For example, if you use this shield for Glancing Blows, which causes you to take 65% of the damage from blocked hits, you’ll end up taking 165% of the elemental damage from blocked hits. That’s 65% more damage than if you didn’t block it here, so be aware of that.
That’s it for this guide. I hope you all enjoyed Affliction League and I’ll see you in the next one.
I’m going to be showing you a method of flipping items that is actually useful in WoW Season of Discovery, and you can make some easy WoW SOD Gold by doing this. What we’re talking about is flipping vendor items, so items that you buy straight from a vendor and then you can resell them at the auction house.
For example, the Rune of Teleportation. We sold it for 49 silver. They’re extremely cheap, around 9 silver to buy. A couple of recipes that we got were like 14 silver to buy, but we can sell it for like 94 silver, which is just insane. Now, it only takes a couple of minutes or even a couple of seconds to set this up and to buy the items.
There are some basic items that are really easy to get. They’re in the capital cities, and this will only take you a few minutes to run around and buy these all up, and you can have them posted up on the auction house just whenever you’re relisting your items.
That we have items that are a lot rarer. So, they’re only up at certain times or they’re only up in limited quantity. Now these items, if you want to put in the work, will actually be a lot better than the basic items that anyone can buy in the capital cities. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up and get going.
But if you want to take this to the next step further, what you can do is you can find the vendors that are out in the open world and hidden in certain locations that have limited items on them. And these items, you’re going to do this a lot better with because the barrier to entry is a lot higher. Because you actually have to go out and you have to find the mobs, the vendors, and there’ll be fewer people that are actually selling these. So what we’re going to do is I’ll show you how to set up TSM so it can have your operations posting the items where you’re always profitable for doing this sort of thing.
So what you want to do first is you want to create a new group. And now every time that you buy a vendor item that you want in this group, you simply just add it to that group. And this is the operation that I recommend using which is called Vendor Buy.
We have 120% of the vendor buy, which means it’s going to sell the items 20% higher than what you actually pay for them from a vendor. That is the minimum price. Then the normal price, if there’s no competition, it will post them at 150% of the vendor buy price, which will be a 50% profit on top of what you actually paid for them from the vendor.
This seems to work really good, and now you can set this group up. You can pretty much just post with all your other items whenever you’re posting up on the auction house, and you pretty much just buy them and you can set them for Get It and you just continuously keep on posting the items.
Now once you sell out of that stock, you can just go ahead to the vendor, and you can buy more of exact the same item that you’ve sold out of just to restock up on the items that have been selling. And this seems to work really well. Like I mentioned, it only takes a couple of minutes to go around and get a bunch of different vendor items if you’re just doing the basic vendor items.
But if you want to take it to the next level, what I’d recommend doing is searching up on WoWhead. It’s very easy to find out where these sorts of items are. You can just go on WoWhead, and you can search up all the different sort of vendors. And this way, you’ll be able to go out if you find a vendor that not many people know where to buy from.
You should be able to control that market, and you should be able to make a lot of gold from simply just buying an item from a vendor using this TSM operation. The percentage you can play around and change. If you want the minimum price to be like 150%, that means you’ll have 50% profit on every single item minimum that you’re selling. But most of the time, it’s going to be a lot higher because it undercuts the competition. So if the competition hasn’t posted for a much higher price than you’re going to post undercutting those people, and you can make even more gold from doing so.
This is just a very simple way. It’s a great way to start out, especially if you don’t have too much gold. You can just go spend like literally less than a gold, and you can have a bunch of items that you can resell for a profit, and it’s a really easy way to make some gold. But like I mentioned, if you do want to take this a step further, you can find out all the vendors that are spread out around the world that are a bit harder to get to or vendors that have limited stock for certain items.
I will explore the inner workings of Frostblink of Wintry Blast CoC Occultist build, which is my favorite of many new emerging cold CoC builds in Path of Exile 3.23. It offers superb mobility, as it teleports the character just like the regular Frostblink does. However, due to the lack of cooldown, you can hook it up to a well-established Cast on Critical Strike and Cyclone gem combo.
The additional upside of this alternate Frostblink is more damage per chill effect on the enemy, which should be capped at 30%. The chill is removed on hit with this spell, so to apply it once again, you will use the basic Frostblink, as it is one of the very few instant cold spells that will not disrupt the channeling.
The greatest benefit of using a mobility spell is the main damage source, as Bronze body armor, with its unmatched local increases to gem level for ascendency, we’ve selected occultist due to the obvious synergy with cold damage and critical strikes from forbidden power stacking maximum power charges normally yields tons of crit chance.
However, in this situation, it also provides a larger area of effect and area damage. The unique items that have to be used are also heavily tied to charges of all kinds, especially Ralakesh's Impatience boots, which treat you as if you’re fully charged. You’re dealing damage with your Frostblink cast on Cyclone that has 100% Critical Strike Chance with a high crit multiplier. You will benefit from Inner Conviction and Pain Attunement. Void Beacon and Frigid Wake are excellent additions.
Enemies will take magnified cold damage. The build has a high spell suppression chance, spell block chance, Elemental damage recoup, and a sizable hybrid life pool. It cannot withstand big physical damage hits unless you’re willing to tweak the build to make it tankier at the cost of damage. Clear speed resembles that of a Flicker Strike, but you can also use a regular Frostblink to close the gaps. It’s really fast. Single-target damage is also more than enough, tens of millions of DPS.
The build uses many cheap Uniques with rares to cap resistances. You will harness the power of charges with Ralakesh's Impatience, Willclash, Malachai’s Loop, and Graven's Secret. With this combination, the character is treated as though it had all its basic charges.
You will also benefit from the absorption charges, which result in a lot of life, life recoup, and spell block chance. Other unique POE Items to implement are Badge of the Brotherhood amulet and Bronze live body armor for more damage. Willclash is an enormous bonus to spell block chance. When combined with other items, characters are treated as if they had all 10 or more power charges, and they do not lose these charges when blocking.
The damage and defense stats are also generous. Malachai’s Loop increases spell damage and grants 2 extra maximum power charges. The extra 5 levels to the Frostblink spell socketed in Bronze live will result in much more damage. Corrupt it for an extra 2 gem levels AOE gems if you can afford it, double corrupted if you like to gamble.
It could potentially increase the level of Frostblink by up to 8. Ralakesh's Impatience boots cause you to be treated as on maximum power, frenzy, and endurance charges. Conjuring these in any other way would be too inefficient and difficult. You can still benefit from Inner Conviction Keystone or absorption charges. The build is not very tanky, so using the Graven's Secret belt is quite a good idea. It grants you an extra maximum power charge and tons of life recoup from the elemental damage you take.
Use Badge of the Brotherhood to benefit from an additional 7 or more frenzy charges. These make you deal more damage and increase the cooldown recovery rate for Frostblink.
You may struggle with capping your Elemental resistances if you put Polaric Devastation on, but if that’s not an issue, consider it for extra damage, crit chance, and to cover enemies in Frost. They will take increased cold damage, and their crit chance gets reduced by 50%. A good Precursor's Emblem with +1 to max power charges is immensely powerful in this build.
Keystone of inner faith is available in the Dominus variant of Militant Faith and deals with more damage per power charge. The devotion mod shall increase your damage, grant you some Elemental resistances, Mana regeneration, or reduce the Mana cost of your skills. Shaper of Storms, Shaper of Winter, Mastermind of Discord, and Heart of Destruction are suitable keystones if you need more damage.
Shaper of Winter is particularly good to upgrade your chill and freeze for improved durability. Look for Bastion of Elements or Nine Lives, Elemental Penetration, and extra Critical Strike chance can be found as Hatred or Zealotry mods on a Watcher’s Eye. Grace offers more evasion and blind on hit. The abundance of unique items leaves you with very few rare items that will be mainly used to fix the missing resistances and attributes.
You can craft the prefix to never miss with Cyclone on your weapon. Reduce the mana cost of skills and gain Spell Suppression, Chaos Resistance, and Blocking. You need some sort of melee weapon to use with Cyclone. We recommend a claw with its instant life and mana on hit, but most weapons will do.
Craft a prefix to make your hits unavoidable and seek modifiers for Critical Strike chance and global crit multiplier with spell damage. Acquire some maximum life, resistances, and spell suppression on the gloves. Other mods are of lesser importance.
Cold Exposure and Unnerve can be gained as eldritch implicit modifiers. Rare rings are where the bulk of your resistances and attributes reside. For prefixes, get maximum life and reduce the Mana cost of your skills. You’ll probably still need a bit more resistances and attributes, so try to gain them on your rare Jewels.
If that’s already covered, go for suitable Critical Strike modifiers. You can use 1 or 2 of the cold themed Large Cluster Jewels. To proliferate freeze, you need to look for Elemental resistances, Elemental damage, cold penetration, and Blast Freeze. Medium Cluster Jewel here you may find additional Critical Strike Chance with crit damage or AOE for better clear speed. We recommend one vast power for around 30% increased area of effect.
Bottled Faith increases your Critical Strike Chance and damage as long as its consecrated ground affects you and your foes. Your block chance is high but not capped. Use room’s concoction flask for more spell and attack block chance. For magic flasks, you can pick up diamond, quartz, jade, and life flasks. Their suffixes shall increase your crit chance, evasion rating, and reduce the mana cost of skills. Life flask shall stop bleeding.
Frostblink of Wintry Blast is more suited for a trigger build, as it has no cooldown but cast time instead. Although it cannot be chilled, it deals more damage to chilled enemies and removes the chilling effect at the same time. Cyclone is used to trigger Frostblink. You can easily move and attack at a high rate. Link these 2 with cast on Critical Strike, Empower, Inspiration, and Power Charge on Critical Support gems.
A regular Frostblink is the mobility spell, which is also used to chill and freeze. Link it with Bonechill and Unbound Ailments for a more powerful chill effect, which translates into more damage. Zealotry guarantees you to have more spell damage and more Critical Strike Chance. Hits against tough enemies will create consecrated ground.
Use Grace for more evasion, which is excellent with Ghost Dance. You can swap it for determination if you prefer to take less physical damage from hits. Instead, Hatred simply grants more cold damage. If you feel like your damage is enough, use Tempest Shield or Arctic AR armor instead of it, maybe even both if you can fit them in. Link 3 skills with Enlightened to reserve less mana.
Numerous incoming hit damage is taken as dot instead of petrified blood on. It can provide you with a high life regeneration. Affects the bottom half of your life pool. Link it with Arrogance and Enlightened support gems to be just below half of your life pool permanently.
You will take less physical and Elemental damage by Immortal Call in a few moments. Frost Shield drains your energy shield to form a protective stationary sphere inside of which you take less damage and have an increased Critical Strike chance. Link both with cast when damage is taken to save your character from dangerous situations.
Enemy marked with Assassin’s Mark takes increased damage from critical strikes and is more likely to be hit with such strikes. Link it with Mark on Hit to apply it automatically against rare enemies. Activate VRF for a brief but potent bonus to your spell damage. Use Shield Charge to move around faster if there are no enemies nearby. Frostbite lowers cold resistance.
Manually kill all the bandits. It’s probably the best option. Alternatively, help Alira. This would get you extra Elemental resistances, Global Critical Strike multiplier, and 5 mana a second. It is a good option for starters.
For a major god, pick Arakaali. We don’t expect to cap chaos resistance anyway, and too much damage over time may be dangerous. As we went heavily into hit damage mitigation with block chance, petrified blood, and recoup. Minor God is less important. Abberath seems like the best pick. It reduces ignite duration for you.
The passive skill tree follows the outermost ring on the top. It’s the most efficient way to allocate all the maximum power charges and grab 2 large jewel sockets for cluster Jewels. The rest of the points are spent on maximum life, Critical Strike nodes, cold damage, reservation efficiency, and spell suppression.
For keystones, get Pain Attunement, Ghost Dance, and something to turn into Inner Conviction. Allocate 50 extra life and 15% increased life if there are no life mods on your body armor.
As life masteries, reservation efficiency as a mastery life reservation efficiency is reservation mastery crit multiplier against unique enemies and extra gem level to Critical Strike gems. As critical masteries, increased damage per charge as charge mastery, and maybe lucky spell suppression if you have any points left and low suppression chance.
In the WoW Season of Discovery, one of the prominent changes in WoW Classic is the level-gated content. Initially, in Phase One, players can reach Level 25, which will gradually increase to 40, 50, and eventually 60 in subsequent Phases. At the culmination of each bracket, a new Raid awaits, and for Phase One, the WoW SoD team has completely revamped the Blackfathom Deeps from a Dungeon into a 10-man Raid.
Each boss within the Blackfathom Deeps has undergone a comprehensive overhaul compared to their classic versions. As a result, players must adapt to new strategies to overcome the re-tuned and intensified bosses. This guide offers insights into the Raid preparation and specific strategies tailored for each role—DPS, Healer, and Tank—allowing for quick reference before each encounter.
Located in the northwest of Ashenvale, on the northern coast of the Zoram Strand, Blackfathom Deeps is initially available as a Raid at the maximum level in Phase One. However, in subsequent phases, it will transition into an optional Raid that players can engage in while progressing through levels, offering high-tier loot and quest XP. The Raid comprises seven bosses scattered throughout the redesigned underwater maze.
Presently, the recommended Raid setup includes two healers, two tanks, and six DPS equipped with at least a few Interrupts among them. Prior to entering the instance, it's advisable to enchant your gear and acquire specific consumables to aid in handling certain mechanics. Some helpful consumables are:
Additionally, before reaching Blackfathom Deeps, make a stop in Darnassus to obtain the Boon of Blackfathom world buff. This world buff automatically applies to everyone in Darnassus when a player turns in the final Blackfathom Deeps quest. It augments Hit Chance, Critical Chance, AP and SP, and Movement Speed, lasting for two hours.
Here are strategies for defeating Baron Aquanis based on different roles.
Melee DPS should consistently position themselves behind the boss to avoid the Bubble Beam ability.
If afflicted by the Depth Charge debuff, cease attacking and plunge into the water, returning once the debuff dissipates.
For Ranged DPS, maintain awareness and move to evade the boss' Bubble Beam ability.
Navigate between platforms to dodge the boss' Torrential Downpour AoE.
Remarkably, it's possible to attack the boss safely from the water below once the trash is eliminated.
Transition to a party or AoE Healing setup, utilizing Runes such as Mass Regeneration and Prayer of Mending.
Navigate between platforms to evade the boss' Torrential Downpour AoE.
Notably, healing allies from the water below is safe once the trash is cleared.
Remain vigilant and move to evade the boss' Bubble Beam ability, which targets the main Tank's location, as indicated by the castbar.
Here are strategies for defeating Ghamoo-Ra based on different roles.
Melee DPS should use rapid weapons and abilities that enhance Attack Speed, like Slice N' Dice, to expedite the removal of the boss' Armor.
Avoid stepping into shell fragments scattered in the area, particularly if you do not utilize Mana as a resource.
For Ranged DPS, employ swift weapons and abilities that bolster Attack Speed to accelerate the boss' Armor removal.
Steer clear of shell fragments scattered around the area, especially if Mana isn't your primary resource.
Reserve Emergency Healing abilities, such as Lay On Hands, in case a Tank accumulates excessive stacks of Crunch Armor.
Promptly activate AoE Healing abilities once Ghamoo-Ra's armor is shattered, as the entire Raid will sustain substantial damage.
Step onto shell fragments only if Mana reserves are critically low, and Tank attention isn't an immediate necessity.
Alternate Tanks upon accumulating two stacks of Crunch Armor, as Ghamoo-Ra's Triple Chomp ability becomes perilously potent with more than two Stacks.
Consume a potent Healing Potion after Ghamoo-Ra's armor is shattered, enabling Healers to concentrate on restoring the remainder of the Raid.
Here are strategies for defeating Lady Sarevess based on different roles.
Melee DPS should consistently disrupt Frost Arrow whenever it's cast. Rogues and Paladins are particularly adept at this task.
Avoid lingering in the Ice areas, as prolonged exposure may result in temporary immobilization.
Prioritize focusing on Sarevess rather than the Elite for a more efficient takedown.
For Ranged DPS, steer clear of the Ice areas to prevent temporary immobilization.
Prioritize focusing on Sarevess over the Elite for optimized results.
Avoid lingering in the Ice areas to prevent temporary immobilization. Maintain maximum range for safety.
Assign one Healer to concentrate on the Offtank, responsible for diverting the Elite's attention.
Continuously reposition Lady Sarevess to avoid the formation of Ice areas.
Ensure the boss faces away from the rest of the group to prevent cleave and chain damage.
Disrupt Frost Arrow to support melee DPS in preventing its execution.
Have the Offtank focus on the Elite, positioning it at the periphery of an Ice patch to potentially immobilize it.
Here are strategies for defeating Gelihast based on different roles.
Melee DPS should prioritize eliminating Tendril adds as soon as they emerge to prevent their casting of Mind Flay.
Exercise caution while maneuvering between enemies, refraining from attacking them, during the March Of The Murlocs ability across phases (three total waves).
For Ranged DPS, prioritize eliminating Tendril adds promptly to prevent their casting of Mind Flay.
Exercise caution while maneuvering between enemies, refraining from attacking them, during the March Of The Murlocs ability across phases (three total waves).
Evade Gelihast's Shadow Crash ability, an extensive AoE Shadow damage aimed at Ranged party members.
Reserve Emergency Healing abilities, such as Rewind Time, should a Tank accumulate excessive stacks of Crunch Armor.
Exercise caution while maneuvering between enemies, refraining from attacking them, during the March Of The Murlocs ability across phases (three total waves).
Evade Gelihast's Shadow Crash ability, an extensive AoE Shadow damage aimed at Ranged party members.
Switch between Tanks once Gelihast accumulates two stacks of Shadow Strike – the boss's damage significantly escalates beyond three stacks.
Be cautious while moving amidst enemies (avoid attacking them) during the March Of The Murlocs ability, occurring across three total waves.
If still affected by the debuff during March Of The Murlocs, consider using a Shadow Protection Potion to counter any potential contact.
Outlined below are approaches to defeating Lorgus Jett across various roles.
Melee DPS should cease attacking Lorgus Jett immediately upon the casting of Corrupted Lightning Shield Totem. Rapidly dismantle this Totem before resuming attacks on Lorgus.
Avoid the boss's Molten Boulder ability, a slow-rolling, high-damage Fire attack traversing the room.
For Ranged DPS, refrain from attacking Lorgus Jett upon the casting of Corrupted Lightning Shield Totem. Swiftly dismantle this Totem before returning focus to Lorgus.
Stay clear of the boss's Molten Boulder ability, a slow-moving Fire attack causing substantial damage on impact.
Steer clear of the boss's Molten Boulder ability, a slow-rolling, high-damage Fire attack traversing the room.
Watch out for the boss's Windfury Totem, which significantly boosts the boss's DPS, and be prepared to employ Emergency Healing abilities if available.
Immediately halt attacks on Lorgus Jett when the Corrupted Lightning Shield Totem is cast. Rapidly dismantle this Totem before returning focus to Lorgus.
Avoid the boss's Molten Boulder ability, a slow-moving Fire attack causing substantial damage on impact.
Here are strategies for overcoming Twilight Lord Kelris in different roles.
Interrupt every Shadowy Chains that the boss attempts to cast. It is cast about every 10 seconds in Phase One, so Rogues can Kick it every time on cooldown. Other DPS should focus on Interrupting Mind Blast.
Consume a Shadow Protection Potion right before Phase 2 (at about 35% health) and focus on unleashing heavy damage. Kelris cannot be interrupted in Phase Two and will continually cast Mind Blasts.
Avoid staying within the Shadow Crash AoE area by monitoring your debuffs.
When transported to the shadow realm, eliminate Priestesses until one reveals a Portal to return you to the normal world. Kelris targets the closest players and avoids targeting the same players twice.
Coordinate groups of two (Tank+melee DPS) to stay close and compel Kelris to teleport them. Others should maintain maximum range to avoid becoming targets.
Minimize healing in Phase One to conserve mana for the much more impactful Phase Two.
Maintain maximum range at all times to avoid being sent into the Dream realm via Kelris' Sleep ability.
If Shadow Chains isn't interrupted, employ a Free Action Potion to avoid being CCed before it takes effect. Priests can also utilize Dispel Magic.
Consume a Shadow Protection Potion right before Phase 2 (at about 35% health) and focus on heavy healing. Kelris cannot be interrupted in Phase Two and will continually cast Mind Blasts.
Avoid staying within the Shadow Crash AoE area by monitoring your debuffs.
Position the boss so that Ranged party members can still attack Kelris while having enough space to avoid the Shadow Crash AoE DoT.
Assist DPS in interrupting Mind Blast and Shadowy Chains in Phase One.
During Phase Two, employ personal defensive Cooldowns to assist Healers and consume a Shadow Protection Potion right before he reaches the 35% HP mark.
When transported to the shadow realm, eliminate Priestesses until one reveals a Portal to return you to the normal world. Kelris targets the closest players and avoids targeting the same players twice.
Coordinate groups of two (Tank+melee DPS) to stay close and compel Kelris to teleport them. Others should maintain maximum range to avoid becoming targets.
Here are strategies for overcoming Aku-mai in different roles.
Melee DPS always stay behind the boss to evade either Corrosive Blast or Void Blast. The boss might abruptly change direction from the Tank, so maintain proximity to reduce travel distance.
Halt attacks immediately when Aku-Mai summons adds; prioritize eliminating them. Neglecting these adds could jeopardize the success of your attempt.
Towards the fight's end, utilize defensive Cooldowns to aid Healers, particularly if both Tanks become incapacitated – Aku-Mai's attacks are formidable.
Ranged DPS always stay behind the boss to evade either Corrosive Blast or Void Blast. The boss might abruptly change direction from the Tank, so maintain proximity to reduce travel distance.
Halt attacks immediately when Aku-Mai summons adds; prioritize eliminating them. Neglecting these adds could jeopardize the success of your attempt.
Towards the fight's end, utilize defensive Cooldowns to aid Healers, particularly if both Tanks become incapacitated – Aku-Mai's attacks are formidable.
Always stay behind the boss to evade either Corrosive Blast or Void Blast. The boss might abruptly change direction from the Tank, so maintain proximity to reduce travel distance.
Consider shifting to a single-target Healing focused setup, utilizing abilities like Beacon of Light, as Aku-Mai primarily focuses on a single Tank at a time.
Position yourself on the opposite side of Aku-Mai to face away from the party, preventing them from getting hit by the boss's Corrosive and Void Blast, and keeping Cleansing Pools nearby.
The Offtank should employ AoE Tanking abilities, such as Thunderclap or Consecration, to generate Threat for the adds that frequently spawn during the fight.
Only utilize Cleansing Pools if afflicted with four or more stacks of Corrosion or Shadow Seep, as they have limitations. Swap Tanks upon reaching this limit.
This guide is about the new Righteous Fire skill for a Hierophant in Path of Exile 3.23. The build uses Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion skill, in contrast to regular RF, not only sources its damage from maximum mana instead of maximum Life but is also affected by all modifiers to spell damage, including increased spell damage from the Indigon helmet. It’s one of the most potent sources of damage that’s rarely explored in dot builds, as the dot damage doesn’t scale with it unless it’s specifically stated.
To get more damage from Indigon, get a lot of maximum unreserved mana and then spend it very quickly with Arcane Cloak to recover all this mana back. Use Armageddon Brand of Volatility with Brand Mastery that recovers 10% of your maximum mana after the brand expires, which happens after merely one activation. When mapping, there's no need to do it since you'll also gain mana on killing with Thrill Killer and/or Mind Drinker.
Hierophant is the ascendancy that specializes in mana, with passives such as Divine Guidance and Sanctuary of Thought. These nodes grant mana damage, reservation efficiency, area of effect, and energy shield, which the build heavily relies on. The damage is sourced entirely from the Indigon. It has a damage cap that you’re able to reach with enough mana, which is sourced from items and passives.
The fire damage over time can be improved with burning damage or dot multiplier modifiers on a weapon. It’s a durable build with over 10k energy shield, a lot of evasion, and reduced Elemental damage taken. It has a low block chance and almost no armor, but the high ES pool combined with Arcane Cloak guard spell will protect you from getting killed in one hit.
Clear speed is great and restricted only by your movement speed. To reach meaningful single-target damage, you will need to spend some POE Currency. The price is high, as expected from an intelligent stacking build, but it can be assembled on a moderate budget.
The build requires a lot of unique POE Items. Your focus is on mana and intelligence. Intelligence grants mana and energy shield, making it important with Shaper’s Touch gloves. It grants Evasion. mana will affect your damage with the Indigon helmet. Transfiguration of Mind adds AOE due to the Sanctuary of Thought. Strength grants mana and energy shield. Indigon increases energy shield and your spell damage alongside mana spent recently, which is the main reason to stack mana and use Arcane Cloak.
All spell damage modifiers affect the damage over time of Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion. You can’t reserve mana, but you can reserve life, and the Prism Guardian Shield is the most efficient way to do so. Socket your most expensive and important auras here. The Ivory Tower protects you from chaos damage and grants tons of energy shield regeneration, intelligence, and mana.
There is no replacement for this armor. Legacy of Fury boots will significantly improve your damage with powerful Scorch and Explosions on killing. If you can't find any resistances, mana, or intelligence, consider replacing them with rare boots. Use Shaper’s Touch gloves to gain tons of mana with energy shield from strength and evasion from intelligence. Cyclopean Coil is a reasonably priced belt with a lot of maximum mana, attributes, and freeze immunity. Use it before you’re able to afford a better one.
Astramentis is the amulet with a lot of attributes that we recommend using in this build. Eyes of the Greatwolf with suitable rolls will undoubtedly be very expensive. You’re looking for increased intelligence, strength, or all attributes with life regeneration, global defenses, fire damage, or maximum mana. Put Shavronn's Revelation on your right finger to gain tons of maximum mana and energy shield regeneration. Since you don't regenerate mana, the downside won't be a problem. Socket Healthy Mind Jewel near Cruel Preparation to gain much more mana, intelligence, and mana on Split Personality.
A rare amulet can be an excellent option. Look for maximum mana, attributes, and resistances. The best ones will have a synthesized implicit or shaper suffix for increased attributes. On a ring, you shall get the usual mana and attributes, especially intelligence. You will probably need some dexterity too for the Grace skill gem. You can obtain mana, energy shield, attributes, chaos resistance, and Elemental spell damage from Jewels. Use large cluster Jewels to create a suitable environment for 2 of your Split Personality jewels. There are quite a few notables to look for. Most importantly, Scintillating Idea from a lightning cluster Jewel for a 20% increased maximum mana.
Mana and intelligence from Clarity are the best modifier to get on a Watcher’s Eye. Another great one is the Malevolence dot multiplier. Excellent additions may manifest as Clarity, Discipline, Grace, and even Purity of Fire. It may be hard to cap your resistances after you put most of your resources into intelligence, strength, and mana. It can be done with Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire flasks if you’ve opted for the Traitor Keystone. While searching for burning damage modifiers on your items is an option, prioritize mana and intelligence instead.
Life regeneration will affect your ES with Zealot's Oath and is very important. You need a weapon with a lot of maximum mana and various types of fire damage over time modifiers, attributes, and dot multipliers are too very valuable. We can craft some of these modifiers. Look for boots that offer attributes like movement speed, mana, and resistances. For Eldritch mods, seek life regeneration per endurance charge and maximum fire resistance. On a belt, you can increase your attributes via Hunter or Elder suffix. Try to get some intelligence from the crafting bench. energy shield, maximum mana, and resistances are good too.
Ivory Tower protects you from chaos damage until you have no mana. Use Coruscating Elixir flask to shift incoming chaos damage to affect energy shield if your mana has been depleted and to take less fire damage. You may also use a regular Ruby flask if your chaos resistance is high and you don’t run out of mana. For other flasks, get a Topaz flask with bleed immunity and a Sapphire flask with increased movement speed if you’re using the Trader Keystone for permanent flasks. These are your 3 flasks. If not, you should also get a Forbidding mana flask with a crafted mod for life regeneration during flask effect and a Quicksilver flask with increased movement speed.
Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion deals damage based on your maximum mana to your character and enemies around you in the form of fire damage over time. Link it with Burning Damage, Swift Affliction, Controlled Destruction, Elemental Focus, and Arcane Surge support gems.
It’s important to use some kind of channeling skill with Armageddon Brand of Volatility. Scorching Ray is the top choice because of its powerful fire exposure. Armageddon Brand of Volatility is supposed to recover 10% of your maximum mana when it expires, which it does after activating once. Allocate the specific Brand Mastery to achieve it. It’s a substantial source of mana recovery during boss fights. Link these 2 with Cast While Channeling and Infused Channeling support gems.
The following 3 auras shall be socketed in the Prism Guardian Shield:
Malevolence makes you deal more damage over time and increases your skill effect duration if you have no mana reserved. Eternal Blessing support allows you to have one permanently blessed aura of charge with an increased aura effect. Link Malevolence to it. Clarity does nothing with Shavronn's Revelation, but it unlocks some of the best mods on a Watcher’s Eye. If you don’t have it, use Vitality instead or alongside it if you have enough life. Link it with Arrogant support.
Your entire mana pool has to remain unreserved. Activate Arcane Cloak to spend 64% of your current mana and gain up to 2,000% increased spell damage from Indigon. Spending a minimum of 16,000 mana in just 4 seconds is necessary to reach this aspirational cap, but it's not practical to attempt with any other skill. Link it with Less Duration and Swift Affliction to use it again sooner. Flame Dash's ability is the curse that lowers the fire resistance of your enemies. If you don’t want to cast it, get a slightly worse Elemental Weakness on hit as a corrupted glove implicit, as we did. You can link your curse gem to Hextouch support to proliferate the Hex.
Shield Charge is simply used to travel faster. Spending mana within Sigil of Power enhances its strength, leading to reduced damage from enemies.
Kill all the bandits in Act 2. You will need the two extra passive skill points the most. For a major God, we recommend the Soul of Arakaali to take less damage over time and less chaos damage over time after an upgrade, which is good if your chaos resistance is not yet capped. The selection of minor Gods offers a variety of bonuses. We recommend something to take less physical damage or less damage over time against the type of damage you struggle with the most. We have picked Shakari for better protection against poison.
The passive skill tree resembles an S shape to squeeze out more mana and intelligence from forbidden jewels. So if you don’t have them, opt for a more optimized shape. Aim mostly for maximum mana, some energy shield, and intelligence. Fire damage and damage over time are less important. Eternal Youth will be transformed into the Traitor Keystone. Allocate also Zealot Oath, Iron Will, Pain Attunement, and a single brand cluster. Get passive energy shield regeneration and shift the stun threshold to ES. Two energy shield masteries lessen damage taken. As for mana recovery after using Guard skill, as mana Mastery, increased attributes as attribute Mastery, and mana recovery when brand expires as Brand Mastery.
Here, we’ll discuss the latest changes to Uber Unique drop rate in Diablo 4 and how it affects the game.
I feel like many of you are probably not fully up to date on every latest change to the game. Since it’s the end of the season, there usually aren’t vast changes at this point.
And Christmas event that just released is boring and uninspired, to say the least. So you have good reason not to listen closely to what’s going on with Diablo 4 right now, at least until they start announcing details about Season 3.
That being said, one recent change to the game that you may have noticed is that the drop rate for Duriel’s Uber Uniques has doubled. That’s what I want to talk about here, because this change has serious implications for both future and past events.
Hardcore Diablo fans should be very aware that doubling things in a game rarely has the desired effect. Before we talk about this change, we also have to talk about Uber Uniques’ system of dropping a boss throughout the game. Because the system itself is highly questionable, to say the least.
Everyone praised the developers for their decision when they announced that Uber Uniques would be more suitable for the average player. Because the drop rates for these items have been so low since the launch of the game that only a handful of players in the world are lucky enough to get them.
Anything is better than this system, so that’s why everyone cheered when Duriel could drop Uber Unique items with about a 2% drop rate.
But little did we know it was another horrible system that players grew to hate over time. In order to fight Duriel and have a 2% chance of receiving one item, players must go through a heartbreaking grind.
The time varies depending on the class you play. But I think it’s safe to say that summoning Duriel at a time requires at least an hour of farming time.
Now, if a player kills Duriel in a group, it can increase the number of summons by 4x. But the problem remains: long hours of soulless grinding with a slim chance of getting really good items.
Trust me, 2% chance is small, especially if you want a specific Uber Unique. You can easily kill between 5 and 800 Duriel without dropping your target Uber Unique. And you can get multiple other unique items that are actually useless to your class.
It filled Reddit with posts, complaining about how many times they ran it without getting Unique drops they wanted. Other types of posts are where players post screenshots of the items they ultimately earned as proof of some kind of achievement.
But is beating a simple, easy-to-kill boss repeatedly really a tremendous accomplishment? Players are frustrated, and rightfully so. Wouldn’t it be better if it could drop Uber Uniques from any mob, but the chance of a drop didn’t limit them to a handful of players in the world?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the addition of Uber Bosses is completely useless. They serve their purpose well by letting players aim to farm regular unique items, such as Tempest Roar and Malignant Rings. But bundling Uber Unique items with Duriel is a huge mistake in my opinion.
Now let’s get back to the present and look at the recent changes to Uber Uniques drop odds. The fact that the developers made such a change, especially in the middle of the season, upset more people.
First, this doesn’t solve the problem of Duriel being a single semi-reliable way to get Uber Uniques. But that’s not the only problem. Let’s see how some player groups react to this change.
Players who have gotten Unique items they wanted despite tedious grinding without buffs may feel betrayed by the developers. Because it takes new players half the time to get the same items.
The second category of players are those who obtained Unique by purchasing Duriel summoning materials using Diablo 4 Gold or even real money. I personally see nothing wrong with using gold to purchase materials. But since duping is available to certain groups, material prices can become very low due to the excessive number of duped items being sold.
So, while buying with gold isn’t inherently a bad thing, duping is questionable. As for paying real money to get summoning materials, I do understand the reasoning: people want to skip dozens or hundreds of hours of grinding to reach Duriel by paying. I understand the motivation, but it’s still bad for the game as this is clearly a case of pay-to-win and will ruin the game in the long run.
So, the target group that should benefit from the double drop chances are players who have never obtained unique items and plan to get them later in the season. However, at the end of the season, the number of these players was not as high as the developers thought.
It’s entirely possible that some players who never got Uber Uniques evaded this chore, and they still have to do it after the change. At least the price of summoning materials is expected to drop due to increased drop rates.
So, overall, the developers made a controversial change to an objectively terrible system. They could have redesigned the entire system, or at least they could have waited until next season to introduce the change.
Regardless, this is yet another in a long line of terrible decisions from Diablo developers. Looking at this trend, they really have to do better to compete with the upcoming Path of Exile 2. What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you planning to take advantage of Uber Uniques? See you next time!
In this guide, we will deep dive into WoW Dragonflight Season 3 crafted gear.
Crafted gear is still a force to be reckoned with in Season 3, despite a slight nerf. The max item level caps at 486, just 3 levels shy of the highest Myth gear.
But don’t let that deter you. It’s still a solid choice. For Stardust, no RNG headaches here, as crafting gear allows you to target specific slots and items, offering a strategic advantage to your gearing journey. So, you can plan ahead and farm the Reagents needed.
Speaking of Reagents, let’s take them one by one and go over the changes this season brought.
Each crafted gear piece requires an Enchanted Crest crafted by Enchanters through the work order system. Or if your main character has enchanting, you’re in luck. It can save you some WoW Dragonflight Gold there.
Enchanted Crest Recipes are found in the Emerald Dream from outdoor activities like rares, treasures, and the Superbloom Event. The drop chance is quite high as well.
Same as last season, we have 3 Enchanted Crests:
The Whelpling crest is utilized for lower-level blue gear, providing an item level of up to 447. Although this is fairly low considering it can drop from outdoor activities as well, it can prove very useful for solo players. On the flip side, the Wyrm and Aspect crests are reserved for epic-quality gear. This is the most powerful gear you can craft, but you also need another Reagent for that.
In WoW Dragonflight 10.2, all crests go directly into the currency tab rather than your bags. Due to this change, an item had to be implemented to convert the crest into a Reagent, allowing for easy transfer to the crafters. This is done by the Nascent Wyrm’s Dreaming Crest, and there are 3 kinds of them: one for each type of crest. All can be purchased from the enchanting vendors throughout the Dragonflight zones.
For example, to craft the highest crest, you need to purchase the Nascent Aspect’s Dreaming Crest by handing in 60 normal Aspect’s Dreaming Crests. To put things in perspective, gathering this amount is equivalent to completing 5 level-16 keys in time or taking down around 6 Mythic bosses. It does take some effort and time, but the high item level makes it worthwhile.
Additionally, you can obtain a free Enchanted Wyrm’s Dreaming Crest through specific milestones. One is rewarded for defeating Fyrakk as part of the main campaign, including all the difficulties. While the other is granted upon reaching Renown 20 with Dream Wardens.
So far, we have covered the enchanted crests. Now, the second reagent that you have to provide for high items is the Spark of Dreams.
This item is basically replacing the old sparks that we had in Season 1 and 2. You can create it by combining 2 Splintered Sparks of Dreams and 250 Flightstones.
There are 2 known ways to earn a half spark. The first way is by completing the “A Worthy Ally” weekly quest offered by the Renown keeper. It requires farming 1,500 reputation with Dream Wardens. The second way is by completing any of these 2 quests offered by Malicia for PVP players. You can find her in the Valdrakken’s PVP Hub.
As you may anticipate, you can generate a spark weekly by receiving one half spark per week. However, there is a unique opportunity to earn an extra spark through the one-time quest “Dreams Unified” offered by Lady Moonberry. Upon completion, you’ll have 2 sparks. But keep in mind, this occurs just once per character.
If you join in later in the patch, you do not need to fret. There’s a catch-up mechanism in place. Splintered Spark of Dreams can be obtained from raids, dungeons, PVP, and weekly activities until you reach the current spark count.
Since we pretty much cover all the universal Reagents across crafted pieces, let’s see how it works in practice.
Firstly, you need to reach out to an enchanter, open a work order for your chosen Enchanted Crest, and find a crafter for your desired gear piece. Consider the cost, quality, and Reagents needed. Many people in trade chat or your guild can help, so don’t be shy.
Besides the spark and the crest, the other Reagents vary depending on the item, and it’s not necessary to provide them yourself. The crafter can also contribute, but take that into consideration for the payment.
The quality of the Reagents is also very important, as it can help to make it faster. The ingredients can be gathered throughout farming, or you can purchase them directly from the Auction House.
So, the consistent Reagents are the Spark and the Enchanted Crest, and these will determine the final item level. If you provide only the spark, then it will be between 450 to 463, depending on its overall quality. However, it’s best to save your spark and enhance the piece further by cooperating crests. The Wyrm crest elevates it from 463 to 476, while the Aspect crest achieves levels from 473 to 486, making it very powerful.
Crafting weapons requires 2 sparks instead of 1, translating to approximately a month’s effort. Hence, it’s crucial to be strategic about the items you choose to craft, considering the sparks don’t come in as quickly.
Aside from that, crests also have a weekly cap of 90 per week, which, of course, increases every week. A good approach is to take notes from the best-in-slot gear guide for your class and spec.
Don’t forget that you can also add Draconic Missive of the Fire Flash for your preferred stuns and Embellishments for some extra Flare, providing fun effects on the piece.
Some items come with building Embellishments, such as the Elemental Lariat, and are so totally worth a look.
All in all, Embellishments give a powerful touch to the gear, and you should always utilize them, but you cannot equip more than two at a time.
Also, keep in mind that if you’ve got any crafted gear from Season 1 or 2 lying around, you can give it a refresh by adding the new Reagents.
Plus, it might even save you a bit of gold, especially if you reach out to the PvP same crafter. That’s all good and well for the PvE players. Now, let’s go over to the PvP side.
Honor and Conquest vendors offer items that let you convert professionally crafted gear into PvP gear. You can find them both in the Valdrakken’s PVP Hub. There are 3 (Greater Verdant) Crests of Honor, which will increase specific slot item levels to 476 PvP item level.
They are sold by Seltherex and they cost different amounts of Honor, depending on the slot you want to use them for. Honor is obtained from doing all types of PvP activities, ranked or unranked.
For the advanced players, there are 3 (Lesser Verdant) Trophies of Conquest, which will increase the gear’s level to 489. These are sold by Calderax and they cost different amounts of Conquest again, depending on the slot item.
Conquest is only earned from rated PvP activities and it has a weekly cap. Season 3 started with a 1,350 limit and it keeps increasing by 550 every week.
Don’t forget that the PvP item level is only enabled during Arenas and Battleground matches. In the Outdoor World, then it’s the actual item level on the piece that counts.
WOW Classic Season of Discovery has started for a few weeks. Currently, almost all Warlock Runes have been discovered. Some you just click on an item, but some are more difficult to complete, like Metamorphosis Rune.
So, in this Warlock Runes guide, I want to review the five most important Runes of Warlock, which are Runes above level 15.
So let’s get down to business first. The Incinerate Rune deals fire damage and increases the fire damage you deal by 25%.
They dropped Rune of Incinerate from Incinerator Gar’im. This is a level 23 elite found in a cave in Render’s Valley, which is located in the southeast corner of Redridge Mountains, approximately around coordinates [77, 85].
Keep in mind that Redridge Mountains are a contested area, so rival factions on PVP server will attack you here. You’ll also have to deal with other Blackrock orc monsters in the area.
So if you’re at a lower level, you may need a friend. You just have to fight him, knock him down, and then you can loot Rune of Incinerate from him, which is actually pretty easy to get once you get to that level.
In Season of Discovery, one of the most valuable Runes you can get as Warlock is Lake of Fire.
This spell is powerful in a fire-based Warlock build. Because it leaves an area on the ground beneath your target, causing all other targets within that AOE radius to take increased fire damage from you and your demons.
To get this Lake of Fire, you first need to find Zixil, a goblin merchant. After finding Zixil, purchase Demolition Explosives from the merchant for a total of 1 WOW Classic SOD Gold. This reagent will be the key to obtaining Lake of Fire Rune later.
Next, head northeast in Hillsbrad Foothills to Durnholde Keep reaching coordinates [79, 40]. There, you’ll find a pile of rocks and debris labeled “Rubble.”
Stand directly on the rubble and use Demolition Explosives purchased from Zixil. If done correctly, you will destroy the rubble and a locker will appear containing Lake of Fire Rune.
If you miss the rubble or stand in the wrong spot when detonating the explosives, the locker containing Lake of Fire Rune will not appear and you cannot get explosives there.
You only have one chance to get this rune, and if you mess up, you’ll have to return to Zixil and drop another gold piece before you can try again.
It can engrave rune of Everlasting Affliction on Legs slot and allow Warlock’s various abilities to refresh the duration of your applied Corruption.
We should note that Alliance and Horde players get Rune of Everlasting Affliction differently.
To get Rune of Everlasting Affliction, Alliance players need to turn in Waylaid Supplies until you gain a Friendly reputation within Azeroth Commerce Authority faction. You can then purchase Rune of Everlasting Affliction from the same Supply Officer for 2 WoW Classic SoD gold.
Horde players who want to get Everlasting Affliction need to turn in Waylaid Supplies until you gain Friendly reputation in Durotar Supply and Logistics faction. You can then purchase Rune of Everlasting Affliction from the same Supply Officer for 2 gold.
Shadow Bolt Volley is a Gloves Rune that enhances Warlock’s classic skill, Shadow Bolt. When this rune is activated, your Shadow Bolt can attack chain enemies within up to 10 yards, but 20% reduce the damage dealt.
In a raid or dungeon situation, Warlock can easily top the damage charts with Shadow Bolt Volley. While your single target damage may suffer as a result, Warlock still has plenty of other damage options, including pet damage and DOT spells. I highly recommend this rune to anyone running a burst damage Warlock build.
To get Shadow Bolt Volley Rune, travel to Beren’s Peril in the southeastern Silverpine Forest. The entrance to this cave is around coordinates [60, 74], which is a bit hidden. We can find it by following the road south and then northeast into the mountains below Ambermill.
You will then need to kill Ravenclaw Guardians and Ravenclaw Drudgers until one of them drops a Tortured Soul.
To use this item, you must lose some health. Use Life Tap or Health Funnel if needed. Then right-click the item to summon a level 20 elite ghost of the same name. Kill it to Shadow Bolt Volley Rune.
Finally, Metamorphosis offers the biggest overhaul to traditional Warlock gameplay by transforming spellcasters into melee tanks. This Rune increases Warlock’s armor by 5x, reduces their critical chance, increases their overall Threat generation by 50%, and doubles Life Tap’s mana regeneration.
For such a powerful, class-changing Rune, Warlock must undergo one of the most complex missions of the season. There are four quests in Metamorphosis quest chain, starting with Orb of Soran’ruk.
To us by Doan Karhan brought this assignment to us. Doan Karhan is a neutral NPC east of Camp Taurajo in Barrens.
Karhan requires players to collect three Soran’ruk Fragments and one Large Soran’ruk Fragment. Small fragments drop from Twilight Acolytes inside and outside Blackfathom Deeps, while large fragments drop from Shadowfang Darksoul enemies inside Shadowfang Keep. Collect both, then return to Karhan.
Karhan will then ask players to collect Orb of Des and Bough of Altek, two new unique quest items.
We can find Orb of Des in Tower of Ilgalar in the eastern Redridge Mountains. Bough of Altek, on the other hand, is located at the top of Tower of Althalaxx in Darkshore. Once you’ve collected these two items, return to Karhan to complete the third part of the quest.
He then asks the player to collect ten Blood of the Legion. These can only be obtained from demonic enemies southeast of Ashenvale. Waves of demonic enemies will spawn here. Warlock must stand among Purple Runes that appear on the ground near the obelisk and use Drain Soul ability to kill these enemies. Survive here and Mysterious Traveler will appear.
Speak with Mysterious Traveler to complete Conjuring and begin the last steps of Metamorphosis quest. When Mysterious Traveler appears, he will give the quest Raszel Ander. After picking it up, return to Karhan one last time to complete the quest and get the Metamorphosis Rune.
That’s it for all the major Warlock Runes. These five Runes will make your Warlock even more powerful in WOW Classic Season of Discovery. Remember, patience is crucial when dealing with these challenges.
