The highly anticipated item faction system is coming to the full release of Last Epoch, on February 21st. 

With this innovative new way, players can participate in the deep and rewarding item hunt that Last Epoch offers, in a way that they like to play. 

By joining the Merchants Guild, you will be able to buy, sell, and trade items through the bustling bazaar. Or, if you choose to join the Circle of Fortune, you’ll set your sights on the stars and be able to bolster your item acquisition through Prophesies and increased item drop rates. So, this faction system is the result of many years of debating what the ideal trade system should look like in a loot-based ARPG.

If you have observed carefully, you will know that players of ARPGs are split nearly down the middle when it comes to those who want their experience to heavily trade and an economy, and those who want to focus on finding items themselves or, with close friends. So, it would be great if the developers of Last Epoch could provide players from both factions with a tailor-made and exciting path to finding top-tier items through the item faction system!

In Last Epoch 1.0, you will join a faction once you reach the great mercantile city of Maj’Elka. 

When you select to join the Merchants Guild or the Circle of Fortune, a new interface will become available that will let you access details about your current status with your faction (known as reputation), how much Favor you currently have and what benefits your faction is currently providing you. Let’s talk about these briefly. 

Reputation within a faction is a core part of how a faction is going to be benefiting you on your journey. As a representative of that faction, you will continue to increase your reputation by killing enemies and completing quests. 

For the Merchants Guild, this includes participating in the bazaar and completing trades at your current level. And for the Circle of Fortune, this means completing prophesies that will divine certain items after fulfilling the foretold conditions. 

Through earning reputation, you will ascend ranks within your faction, earning your unique benefits and options. Once you have earned reputation within a faction, that reputation stays with your account, in that game mode. This means, if you rank up a cycle character, all of your other cycle characters will have that rank when they join the same faction, and contribute to that faction’s reputation gain. You may switch factions and earn and maintain reputation with them with no penalty to your earned reputation with the other. 

There are currently 10 ranks to achieve in each faction. With the later ranks requiring quite a bit of commitment in order to obtain. So, while you have the freedom to change your faction at any time, you will want to pick a faction and stick with it to reach the most powerful benefits that they have to offer.

It is important to note that you can only be a member of one faction at any given time per character. And items earned with the benefits from those factions will require that you are aligned with them in order to use them. So, most players will want to stick to a faction that rewards their preferred playstyle. 

Next, let’s talk about Favor. Favor is the currency you will earn while slaying enemies or completing quests for each of the factions. 

Favor is separate from reputation. This currency can be used to either complete trades with the Merchants Guild or acquire new prophesies from the Circle of Fortune. And if you find yourself with excess favor, you can always spin the wheel with the faction gambler. 

Item gifting to party members has been in the game for a while now and it isn’t going anywhere. 

However, it’s important to note that once you have joined a faction, items will start being tagged with the faction you are a part of when they dropped. 

This means, that while questing if you are a member of the Merchants Guild, and an item drops for you that item will still be shareable with anyone who was in the party like always, and be available to be sold provided that you meet the rank requirements in the Merchants Guild bazaar. 

Just be sure that the person you are trading it to also meets the same faction requirements. 

The last use case developers wanted to solve for, are friends who choose to play together and just want their own little trade group. 

To solve this problem, developers introduced Resonance, which is a new type of item that can be found when you are questing with your friends or party members. This item can be used to enable an item to be gifted specifically to the player you have a Resonance with, even if they weren't there when the item dropped. 

A lot of times, players will play with their friends and then later, you'll be soloing a piece of content and the perfect item drops for your buddy. Thanks to the new Resonance system, you will be able to give them that perfect item, the next time you see them. 

As those of you who love loot-based ARPGs know, trade and economy is a very complex and divisive issue to solve for when catering to a large player base and different play styles, while keeping the item acquisition hunt feeling great. 

There is so much more to explore with the item faction system. Let's wait for February 21st. All the mysteries about the item faction system will be revealed during the search!

I’m going to bring you a quick Shaman tank in-depth guide about everything we need to know in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. It includes races, runes, what you want to use on certain bosses, rotation, and just kind of further information into the builds.

Hope you like this build and have a try. Now, let's just dive into this guide.

With Shaman tanking, there are only 3 races you can play as: Troll, Orc, and Tauren. Each has special racial or special things that make them better than others.

If you’re looking for more stamina and more survivability build, you’re going to go Tauren. This brings the Racial of Endurance, giving you more health pull. It also has War Stomp, which is great for AOE pulls. Stomp shock everything. It basically stuns every target for 3 seconds so you get all the aggro on them and pull them towards you.

If you’re going Orc, which has Axe Specialization, giving you a couple more points into using axes. You also get Blood Fury, which provides a damage boost but with a 50% less chance of healing for 25 seconds. So some bosses it might cost you your life.

Trolls, the last race, brings a great racial called Berserking. This increase your attack speed for some time. The other downside of it is they bring Beast Slaying, currently not very useful in BFD.

Next, we’re going to look at what type of runes you want to be running as a Shaman tank. There’s a different variety. You’re going to want to have the Way of Earth on. It’s very easy to obtain in the Barrens. This one turns your abilities, such as Earth Shock, into a taunt for you. It also gives you, on top of that, a 30% more health pull.

Other things you’d like to run for survivability include Shield Mastery, throwing on a shield, giving you 15% extra block chance without any other bonuses. So, it might be useful for you.

If you’re not getting hit much or hard in BFD, I would recommend running Dual Wield, using double Rockbiter Weapons to get an increased amount of threat. However, you would also have to run Dual Wield Specialization on your chest piece rather than Shield Mastery since you’re not using a shield.

For the hands, these are runes that I swap on each different boss in the BFD. Some bosses, I’ll throw on Molten Blast for AOE.

For single-target bosses, I’ll throw on Lava Lash.

For bosses like Ghamoo-ra, I’ll throw on Lava Burst with Overload on my chest for an increased chance of procing and doing more damage. You’ll still hold the number 1 threat, no matter what.

The runes are up to you, whichever way you like to play the game. If you want to go Shield Mastery or try new things that Shaman has offered in SOD, it’s up to you.

Something thorough that we go over doesn’t have to be crazy right now is the stat priority for Shaman tanks. You do want stamina, but it’s not something you’re going to get right away since bosses aren’t hitting that hard. So, focus on agility into strength, then into stamina. These 3 boost your threat, damage, and help you DPS.

Then focus on intellect for mana, and armor and hit rating. Currently, you don’t get a lot of armor rating since we’re on the 25 brackets, and hit rating is obtained from BFD Boon and epic gear from professions. These are quick notes about stat priority and what to look for in a Shaman tank.

I want to get into the quick rotation. When you pull a boss, pop Flame Shock right off the bat and then cast Molten Blast because, with Flame Shock up, there’s a 10% chance that this resets the cooldown of Molten Blast. So, you can keep pressing Molten Blast, generating more threat as you go in. If you don’t have another Shaman in your group, drop the right totems.

Strength of Earth Totem and Fire Nova Totem seems to be the only 2 because your mana pool isn’t crazy high. Dropping totems like Fire Nova Totem repeatedly might not be worth it because you’ll go out of mana. Strength of Earth Totem stays up for 2 minutes, so you drop it. Most bosses last 30 seconds to 45 seconds or maybe longer, which might last a minute 30.

You can also apply Frost Shock if all the targets have Flame Shock on them, and if you have enough mana, you can throw in Lightning Shields. Again, it’s situational, depending on your mana. If you have extra mana to spend, throw on Lightning Shield, Frost Shocks, or keep throwing Molten Blast.

The rotation is situational, so if your rune swapping, you might not be running Molten Blast. You might run Lava Lash, Lava Burst, or different things that are good for different bosses. But you’ll still Flame Shock, drop the same totems, and look out for those things. The rune is the biggest thing on whether you’re casting Molten Blast, Lava Lash, or Lava Burst.

Finally, I want to get into professions and maybe some consumables for the Shaman tank. Currently, there aren’t professions that increase your threat besides maybe engineering for Heavy Dynamite, but it’s for AOE damage. Most bosses in BFD are single tank bosses, so professions are up to you. I would say run Leatherworking. You get gloves that give you a hit percentage and increase your attack speed for a certain duration when you pop them.

When it comes to consumables for tanks, Strong Troll’s Blood Potion for health regeneration throughout the raid, Elixir of Defense for armor that reduces all damage by boss melee attacks, stacking with some runes like Way of Earth for armor. Elixir of Firepower is good for abilities like Lava Burst and Molten Blast. Elixir of Lesser Agility is excellent for agility, our number 1 stat priority.

Situational consumables like Free Action Potions are invaluable against bosses and enemies with stuns. If you pop it at the beginning of Lady Saravess, you won’t get frozen arrowed and can stand in her pool without getting chains in Phase 2. Shadow Protection potions are solid against Kelris.

Finally, for the last part of this guide, we’re getting into the talent tree for Shaman tanks. You’re going to want to go right into the enhancement tree, going 5 out of 5 in Shield Specialization. It increases your chance to block attacks with the shield by 5% and increases the amount blocked by 25%. This is up to you.

If you’re running a shield, it’s worth it. If not, and you’re dual-wielding, Ancestral Knowledge might be better, increasing your maximum mana by 5%. Going down, you want Thundering Strikes, improving your chance to crit with your weapon by 5%. If you’re dual-wielding, you have a double chance to crit.

Anticipation, going 5 out of 5 increases your chance to dodge by an additional 5%. You want to dodge and parry to tank less damage for a smoother raid.

Finally, since you get 16 points, we’re going to put 1 into Flurry, increasing your attack speed by 10% for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. This works well with Thundering Strikes. The more you crit, the more Flurry procs you get, making you swing faster and output more threat. It’s better for you to be tanking any boss.

Have you made any progress on FC 24? A lot of players lately have been complaining that they’re playing a lot but not seeing any improvements, which is frustrating them.

It’s time to change that. Because from my experience as a coach, I know that all you need is some focused practice and you’ll get better. If you know what to focus on, develop a proper training plan and practice accordingly. In this guide, we will show you 3 key points to becoming a good player.

There are many aspects to FC 24, and you can’t learn every aspect at once, which is why you have to set some small goals by sorting out the mechanics.

You need to practice prioritizing them and plan focused workouts for each one during the week. Winning one-on-one Tackles, Player Switching and Skill Moves are probably the best examples.

So tell yourself, today I’m going to focus on Stepovers and how to perform them cleanly, and do about 60 minutes of focus training. The next day, you can do the same thing with another mechanic, such as Player Switching.

Focusing on just one mechanic of the game will allow you to improve at this point and take a step forward. Because improvements to a specific mechanic or skill are more important than winning the game.

If you don’t know which mechanics to focus on, you need to have this mindset and don’t worry. Because we have a series of guides for you here, plus we have many in-depth tutorials that may give you ideas for training in the different major categories.

We want to take the next step and train on almost every mechanic of the game. There is a different type of training section here. Let me give you a personal example in FIFA 19.

I’m one of those players who never reaches for the right analog stick to perform some skill moves. But that time I felt like I was missing something in the game, and it stopped me for a while. Then I prioritize learning important basic and advanced Skill Moves.

All I did was go into Practice Arena, where I could actually perform specific Skill Moves. Let’s take Elastico as an example. After learning input, I told myself that this Skill Move is directional. Since the input always changes based on which direction my player is facing, I have to practice it everywhere.

I’ve invested some time and FC 24 coins to complete a basic build. Then, when it was enough, I jumped into a squad battle game against AI first before trying to train against AI with actual players. This is the perfect tool for your daily training because you can test everything without having to deal with too much stress.

Once I get a good feel for it, I move to the online portion and start trying out Skill Moves against real opponents. FIFA players just focus on that specific set of skills and try it out in different situations, showing me when and where it works, and when it doesn’t.

So you have to experience the positive and negative results of the execution mechanism. So when you embrace this mindset, you will feel it clearly. You won’t force yourself to learn all the mechanics, but once you’re done training, they will actually come naturally to you.

Remember, winning or losing doesn’t matter when training. If you focus on winning or losing situations, you can easily fall back into your bad habits. So just focus on clean execution of the mechanism. That’s the only way you can achieve your goal.

Now I want you to listen to me carefully here, because this is the most important practical part: watching and analyzing your own game, even if it’s a painful defeat. That’s not only why I’m a good player, but also what makes me a successful coach.

During your game, you may not realize what mistakes you are making in the heat of the game, and you will repeat them and possibly blame them on the game. Therefore, please observe your performance on time.

Let me tell you a brief but very important story from my coaching experience. When I send introductory emails to my students, I ask them what their strengths and weaknesses are. Sometimes I get responses like: I’m great at building, but I can’t beat the script for this game very well.

When I watch them play, I take notes and analyze their games. The funny thing is that in some cases, I don’t have to tell them anything. Because when I ask if you see the question here, they insert the correct answer into the reply and tell me what they should have done instead of what they did.

So after losing a game, make sure to use the recording option from the console and watch yourself, even if you win and it was a hard to win, do it again. Because winning a game doesn’t mean you’ve done everything right, there’s always room to correct mistakes or improve.

So you need to take that step, watch your own games, recognize your mistakes, take notes, gain focus, and retrain to be reminded again.

Finally, let’s wrap it all up with an example session. You start in Practice Arena, practicing a specific mechanic for 20 to 30 minutes. Then you go and play three or four online matches. At this point, your primary focus is on clean execution of the mechanic, not on achieving victory.

Here you can improve yourself immediately after recording a game or two and spend the rest of the course of analyzing your own games. This will make you realize what you did wrong, what you did right, and push you in the right direction of learning.

That’s it for today’s guide. We really want you to have the right training plan and the right mindset to push you in the right direction and become a better player!

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.

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.