In Path of Exile, Smite of Divine Judgement is a very powerful melee skill that relies on divine fury to knock down enemies. With the buffs to melee in Settlers of Kalguur league, this skill has become even more powerful. This means that you can build a very good build around Smite of Divine Judgement so that you can use this skill to its maximum effect. This guide will show you how to build Smite of Divine Judgement build.
Key Features
Before building a build, we need to understand the key features of Smite of Divine Judgement so that we can maximize its advantages and reduce its weaknesses. First, Smite of Divine Judgement currently has a maximum level of 20 and includes several types of Lightning, Attack, AOE, Melee and Strike.
In terms of mana consumption, each use of Smite of Divine Judgement costs 12 mana, which is not too much. In addition, the attack speed of Smite of Divine Judgement is slightly worse than the base speed, with only 85% of the base. But the attack damage is 369% of the base damage. In addition, Effectiveness of Added Damage is also 3.69 times. Most importantly, the quality of Smite of Divine Judgement is increased by 20% compared to the base.
As the person who uses Smite of Divine Judgement skill, your character needs to reach at least Level 70 and have 98 Strength and 68 Intelligence to use it. So, in the allocation of attributes, you may need to focus on Strength and Intelligence.
Now let’s take a look at the new mechanism of Smite of Divine Judgement skill in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. First, it can convert 50% of Physical Damage into Lightning Damage, which is great for facing some enemies that are resistant to Physical Damage. And there will be a wider Area Damage, about a 38% increase, and the base radius has been increased to 2.1 meters. Its Lightning Strikes have also been enhanced and can now hit 3 targets within a range of 7 meters, which is very helpful when you are facing some groups of enemies.
Required Items
Weapons
For Smite of Divine Judgement build, you can choose some weapons with high Physical Damage, such as swords, axes, maces, scepters, or staves with high base physical damage. In this way, under the skill mechanism, you can both deal with high physical damage and maximize your lightning damage.
Passive Skill
For Passive Skill, you can pay attention to three aspects. The first is to focus on nodes that can increase lightning damage and physical to lightning conversion.
Secondly, you can also focus on those nodes that can increase your attack speed and range of effect, so that the disadvantage of Smite of Divine Judgement’s low attack speed is solved, and Smite’s coverage and frequency can be enhanced.
The last node you need to pay attention to is the one that can increase critical strike chance and multiplier, so that your total damage and output can be maximized.
Ascendancy
In terms of Ascendancy selection, you can choose in Inquisitor category. The following are Ascendancy you can choose and their effects.
- Sanctuary: Attacking enemies increases elemental resistance and causes holy ground to appear.
- Pious Path: Grants life and mana restoration while on consecrated ground.
- Righteous Providence: Increases chance of critical strike based on Strength and Intelligence.
- Inevitable Judgement: Ignores elemental resistance during critical attacks and greatly increases damage.
Gems
In the selection of Support Gems, we also adhere to a point of view to enhance Lightning Damage and Elemental Damage, and maximize the area of effect and Lightning Penetration.
Based on this point of view, you can first choose Leap Slam, because it can enhance the mobility of the entire build. Or you can choose Ancestral Protector, which can make up for the shortcomings of Smite of Divine Judgement’s insufficient attack speed.
Among them, the most worth mentioning is Herald of Thunder, because its Aura can greatly increase your lightning damage to the enemy, and can also apply additional impact, which will make it easier for you to get the final POE Currency reward in battle.
Armor And Accessories
Since armor and accessories are both equipment in Path of Exile 3.25, they are introduced together. For the armor you need, it must have high health and high resistance, and it would be best if it can also increase lightning damage. The only armor that meets the above conditions is Loreweave, so it is the best choice.
When choosing Helmet, Gloves, and Boots, you also need to consider health and resistance, followed by attack speed and whether it can increase lightning damage. There are too many items that meet the requirements in Settlers of Kalguur league, so I won’t list them.
For Amulet and Rings, contrary to the above equipment, you need to focus on whether it can increase lightning damage and attack speed, because the problems of health and resistance have been solved by POE items such as armor.
The same is true for Belt, but here I can recommend you the best choice - Stygian Vise.
Flask
In Path of Exile, Flask is also very important for a build because it can protect your character from the threat of death in time. The same is true for Smite of Divine Judgement build. Here, you can choose from two categories: Life Flask and Utility Flasks.
In Life Flask, you can directly choose Instant Recovery because it is the most useful for emergency treatment. You can make a few more in your free time to prepare for emergencies.
In Utility Flasks, you can choose Granite Flask, Basalt Flask, Quicksilver Flask, Sulphur Flask or Silver Flask. They can enhance different types of damage in this build. You can decide the specific choice according to your play style or usage habits.
For example, if you need very thick armor to ensure the safety of your character, you can choose Granite Flask; if you want to increase more damage, you can choose Basalt Flask or Sulphur Flask.
The above are some features and build methods of Smite of Divine Judgement build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. I hope you can use this powerful melee build to win more battles in this melee-enhanced league!
With the strengthening of melee in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur league, more and more players want to use melee builds to challenge some enemies that can get close to them, even bosses.
So after all the enhanced melee builds, how do you choose the best one? This guide will introduce you to three best builds in Settlers Of Kalguur league. Without further ado, prepare your POE Currency and explore together!
Boneshatter
The first is the most familiar Boneshatter Juggernaut to players, which has also performed very well in previous leagues. It is not only very destructive but also very comprehensive when performing range attacks. But it should be noted that Boneshatter hits the enemy with such force that it can hurt yourself and even cause cumulative damage. So before using Boneshatter, be sure to collect enough armor to resist enough damage and adjust your attack speed to the highest. This will ensure that you have enough health to deal with more damage during the battle.
After briefly introducing the overall overview of Boneshatter, let’s talk about the advantages of this build. The first thing to praise is the survivability of this build, even though I just said that you will hurt yourself in battle. Because the stackable armor of this build is very thick, the damage you cause yourself is not to be feared at all. If you think that Boneshatter’s speed or damage to bosses is weak because of its strong survivability, you are wrong. The movement speed in this build is still very fast, and it can kill a relatively large enemy in a few seconds.
After talking about the advantages, the disadvantage of Boneshatter is also very obvious, your accuracy. Because if your accuracy is greater than your health, then the key Precise Technique will cause 40% additional damage to the enemy.
For all the budgetary concerns of players, Boneshatter is relatively inexpensive, you only need to invest 60 Chaos Orbs in this build to clear the early endgame maps. If you want to enter the subsequent Yellow Maps easily, you may need to invest 120 Chaos Orbs.
Cyclone Of Tumult
The next build is also one of the strongest melee builds in previous leagues, Cyclone of Tumult. With some melee buffs in POE 3.25, this build has become even more powerful. The biggest change now is that you will have some work banners that can provide additional DPS in the fight between you and the boss. First, let’s talk about the advantages of this build. The most obvious and useful one is the movement speed.
When you use it, you will find that you are always moving and constantly killing enemies around you while moving. This can easily clear some enemies that hinder your progress. The damage to the boss is also very powerful. When your build is complete, you can kill a very large boss in a few seconds. In addition, the skill tree of this build is very simple, and you may complete this build in a short time.
Having said the pros, now it’s time to talk about the cons. Although you will get great survivability after completing this build. But if you want to upgrade your character during combat, you need to control your progress, because this is a melee build, which means you will fight with the enemy at close range. If you are not careful, you will be very vulnerable.
So before entering the high-tier content, you can wait a little longer and upgrade as much as possible. In addition, you also need to pay attention to how to deal with some enemies that can cause stun.
In this build, although you can rely on Cluster Jewels for stun immunity, it costs a lot of POE Currency, which you may not get immediately. At this time, you need to master some evasion nodes in combat. In this way, you will not be hit by too powerful stun attacks.
For budget, Cyclone of Tumult only costs you 90 Chaos Orbs to destroy the early endgame maps, and only 150 for the subsequent Yellow Maps. Also, for unique items, you only need one Stampede Boots. It allows you to always move at 150% of your current base movement speed.
Lightning Strike
The last one is the very popular and powerful Lightning Strike build. It was at the top of the meta before, but after a few leagues, it began to disappear. But with the recent buff to the melee, it has returned to the public eye and is stronger than ever.
As usual, the advantages of this build are the clearing speed. Besides the well-known powerful melee attack, Lightning Strike will also create a lot of mobile lightning projectiles on the ground of the battle arena, indiscriminately killing all enemies in its path.
In addition, this build also comes with Trickster Ascendancy, which has a very fast clearing speed and strong survivability. There are also seven frenzy charges in this build, which can bring you additional damage and movement speed, and even add a layer of defense for you.
The only disadvantage of this build is that you need to find a very good elemental claw for it. But you don’t have to worry too much, because elemental claw can be easily obtained in your trade with other players.
So what is the budget for this build that has no gigantic problems? It’s not that much, actually. For the early endgame maps, you need 80 Chaos Orbs; and for the subsequent Yellow Maps, you need 150. Compared to other melee builds that cost more than 200 Chaos Orbs, Lightning Strike is still very cost-effective.
These are the three best melee builds you can choose in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur league. You can choose the one that suits you best based on your usage habits and game style. I hope you can have fun in this new league!
In POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, released last month, both defensive and offensive metas have changed significantly, making some melee and stacking builds stronger and weakening defensive mechanics and loot generation strategies that were very powerful in previous leagues.
In a month of game experience, have you found a strong build of your own in this new league? This guide will give you a summary of several of the strongest builds in Settlers of Kalguur in terms of build performance and special advantages. Whether you want to control endgame content or want to explore leisurely, you can find the most suitable build for you in this guide.
Here we need to remind you that new players and players who have not played POE for a long time can start with some safer and more fault-tolerant builds, such as Righteous Fire. For experienced players, you can challenge some more complex and high-reward builds. Without further ado, get your POE Currency ready and let’s get started!
1. Elemental Hit Of The Spectrum Deadeye / Warden (Level As LA / ROA)
This build mainly utilizes Elemental Hit skill, which can cause multiple types of elemental damage to enemies, and Deadeye or Warden ascendancy can provide you with excellent damage and clearing speed.
When transitioning to Elemental Hit, you can effectively upgrade it by using Lightning Arrow (LA) or Rain of Arrows (ROA). In addition, this build also focuses on stacking elemental damage, crit chance/multi, and projectile damage, so it is the well-deserved first-best build!
2. Hexblast Mines (Trickster)
In many player communities, many players have started using Hexblast Mines build because its Trickster ascendancy can provide it with unpredictable damage and tank-like survivability.
This build focuses on using curses with Hexblast and detonating the mines to cause tremendous damage. So when you use Hexblast Mines build, all you need to do is use various resources to expand chaos damage, curse effect, and mine damage.
3. Archmage DD Of Chaining / BL Of Orbiting / Frostbolt Ice Nova
This build mainly relies on Archmage support to expand its skill damage, such as Detonate Dead (DD), Ball Lightning (BL), or the combination of Frostbolt and Ice Nova.
In addition, this build focuses on Stacking Mana, Mana Regen, and Cast Speed, so that Archmage damage can be maximized. Chaining or orbiting projectiles can also provide a faster clearing speed for this build.
4. Lightning Strike Warden / Slayer
These two builds may be very familiar to veteran players. They mainly use Lightning Strike skill to launch a series of lightning projectiles that can cause heavy damage to the enemy.
But at the same time, Warden or slayer ascendancy can provide very good survivability for this build, so it can both protect itself well in combat and deal a lot of damage. In this build, positioning is very important to maximize the skill’s double-hit mechanic.
5. Slams (Ground Slam Or Earthshatter Or Others, Level As Sunder)
In POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, Slam skills, such as Ground Slam or Earthshatter, are very powerful melee skills that can cause huge area damage in combat.
The entire build will gradually upgrade from Sunder and then transition to Slam skills just mentioned. So Juggernaut or Chieftain has become the most frequently chosen ascendancy choices by players. In this build, the key aspects you need to focus on are how to amplify physical damage, attack speed, and area-of-effect.
6. Power Siphon Mines
In Power Siphon Mines build, you can see that Power Siphon skill can be cleverly combined with remote mines, and the mine explosions will cause a lot of damage. So in this build, the most important thing for you is to increase mine damage, followed by wand damage and projectile damage.
This build may undergo some changes in subsequent patches, and there is hope that there will be a certain chance to cooperate with some more powerful enchants.
7. Poisonous Concoction Of Bouncing
As we all know, Poisonous build in POE mainly uses Poisonous skill, but the difference in Poisonous Concoction build is that it can launch a projectile that bounces and applies poison. This makes the poison damage more powerful.
In addition, this build will also scale poison damage, chaos damage, and projectile mechanics. Although this build is only ranked seventh, it is also a favorite of many players. In this build, Pathfinder or Occultist are the most common ascendancy choices.
8. Righteous Fire Chieftain
As the name implies, Righteous Fire Chieftain build is centered on Righteous Fire skill, which calculates your current damage based on your maximum health. Chieftain ascendancy works well with Righteous Fire through life regeneration and fire damage scaling.
In Righteous Fire Chieftain build, you need to focus on stacking life, fire damage, and fire resistance. Since you don’t need to worry about damage, you only need to worry about defense.
9. SRS Guardian (Generic Minion Cuck)
This build uses Summon Raging Spirits (SRS) skill to summon aggressive spirit minions to attack the enemy. For this build, the health and damage of spirit minions are more important than your own.
So you can use Guardian ascendancy to provide powerful defense for spirit minions. In SRS Guardian build, make sure SRS minions are always alive.
10. Frostblades / Cat-abasis / Flicker
Both builds are built around melee skills, such as Frostblades, Frost Blades, or Flicker Strike. In POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, the melee builds and skills are enhanced. They all provide very good clearing speed and single target damage in this league.
There are many Ascendancy choices here, such as Raider, Berserker, or Slayer. But it should be noted that the equipment in this build may cost a lot of POE Currency, so new players or players with limited budgets should not consider this build.
The above are the top ten builds in POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur based on the feedback from many players in the player community. There will be more and better builds in the future, and we will continue to follow up. I wish you an easier exploration in the new league after using the above builds!
Path of Exile 3.25 brings a number of changes that completely change the defense meta. This doesn’t just affect the popular Archetypes in Settlers of Kalguur League, but more specifically how they are built and which mechanics are favored over others, which can largely be attributed to the overhaul of a melee in POE 3.25 and the resurgence of players choosing these builds again.
Regardless of where the build is in Passive Skill Tree and which Archetype it belongs to, it has been affected by the changes made to the core defense composition in POE 3.25.
Because ever since POE 3.16 introduced Spell Suppression and completely revised Evasion and Armour formula, while also making massive buffs to Grace and Determination, these Auras have been frequently used in many builds at the time.
Since then, the game has slowly but surely become balanced around the presence of Spell Suppression, and many builds use either Grace or Determination, or even both Auras to bolster their defenses.
But that all changes in a big way in POE 3.25. In this guide, let’s take a look at those changes and how they affect the defense meta.
Changes & Impact Of Aura
First, let’s talk about those Aura changes in Settlers of Kalguur, namely that both Grace and Determination were nerfed. But their nerfs were the result of another change that introduced numerous new Armor Base Types with fairly high Base Defenses.
If we only look at this change in isolation and compare characters using these Auras in POE 3.24 and POE 3.25, the end result is actually not that important. Because the source of Base Defense is simply shifted, and the actual defense gained is only a minor change.
You get more Base Defenses from gear, and less from Auras, but the total amount you actually have is somewhat similar to previous patches. However, this change is more significant because of the enormous shift in the number of characters actually using Grace and Determination Auras.
According to statistics, in POE 3.24 Necropolis, 45% of players used Grace and 41% used Determination, with 16% of players using both Auras.
Fast forward to POE 3.24 Settlers of Kalguur, and Grace usage has dropped significantly, with only 27% of characters using it, and Determination has seen a similar trend, with only 24% of characters using it. But the biggest drop is in the percentage of players using both Auras, from 16% to 4%.
The reason for this drop is that the opportunity cost of using these Defensive Auras has increased significantly, while the benefits of using them with the average build are much less.
Conversely, the amount of Base Defense gained from gear alone is now significant enough that you can build your Passive Skill Tree in a slightly different way to incorporate more Defensive Wheels for Evasion and Armour scaling, ultimately gaining the same amount of defensive stats.
Endurance Charges
There is another really big change related to this meta change, and that is the change to Endurance Charges. In previous patches, most players who used Grace and Determination or both saw this change, and they used them primarily to defend against monsters’ physical attacks. After all, that’s one of the most dangerous things you encounter when you first arrive on a map.
Most monsters have basic physical attacks, some of which deal a lot of damage, which is the cause of a lot of death in early character development. Therefore, adding these Defensive Auras to many builds helps protect your character from these hits.
But in POE 3.25, a lot of players no longer choose to use Defensive Auras, and instead turn to Endurance Charges, and invest a lot of POE Currency in them. This is because Endurance Charges have changed in Settlers of Kalguur.
Now, instead of providing Elemental Resistance, they provide Elemental Damage Reduction. They still provide PDR, though, so each charge now provides 4% additional Physical Damage Reduction and 4% Elemental Damage Reduction. As a result, many builds are looking for ways to incorporate Endurance Charges into their setups.
Block
Another big change to defense in POE 3.25 is Block.
But this change is a bit biased because of Gladiator rework and Svalinn Unique Shield. Because in both cases, investing in Block is mostly a foregone conclusion. But regardless, investing in Block is also achievable because of some major changes the developers made to Block node on Passive Skill Tree.
For Gladiator, the changes to Versatile Combatant are huge, and its Block can be achieved by skill combinations such as Flicker Strike, Lightning Strike, Splitting Steel that use Ephemeral Edge, and utilize Block as one of the core defenses of these builds.
Maximum Resistances
Another big change is the introduction of Maximum Resistances to Regular Duel Modifiers, making these stats more accessible than ever before.
You can now get up to 2% Maximum Elemental Resistances on a single Jewel Modifier, and these actually stack on a single Jewel. So you can get 2% Maximum Resistances of both Elemental types on a single Jewel, for a maximum of 4%.
When we first saw this change, we immediately thought about how powerful this would be if Melding of the Flesh was used as this Jewel Modifier! This would make your Maximum Elemental Resistance equal to the highest one, allowing you to scale a single stat.
Physical Damage Taken As
Finally, we’ll talk about Damage Taken As, as access to Physical Damage Taken As Other Damage Types was nerfed significantly in POE 3.25.
Many modifiers on crafted gear were removed or replaced, and you’re pretty much limited to getting Eldritch Implicit on non-unique gear. It’s interesting that this is the approach they took to balance items, rather than nerfing items like Lightning Coil or Cloak of Flame.
This is probably the right thing to do, though. These items need to remain as powerful as they were before. After all, they are now competing with newer armors that are stronger and have higher Base Defenses.
Outro
Overall, the plethora of changes in Path of Exile 3.25 have drastically changed the defense meta in POB. It gives you more freedom to use your mana in a better way, and even things like Blood Magic become viable since you’re no longer forced to use a specific subset of Reservations.
What do you think of the changes to the defense meta in this League update? Do you think it’s a buff or a nerf to your build? See you in-game!
With the arrival of Path of Exile 3.25 update, Endurance Charges have also undergone a major change. Instead of providing additional Elemental Resistance, they now provide Elemental Damage Reduction, and still provide the additional Physical Damage Reduction they provided previously.
In this guide, we’ll talk about the importance of Endurance Charges as a defensive layer, and how to apply them to your build, even if you’re on the complete opposite side of Passive Skill Tree.
Endurance Charges Explained
For Endurance Charges mechanic in POE 3.25, you now gain 4% additional Physical Damage Reduction and 4% Elemental Damage Reduction. There are max of three Charges by default, and each Charge lasts 10 seconds by default. Once a new Charge is acquired, this resets the duration of all Charges of that type.
Additional Physical Damage Reduction
Let’s first look at how these Charges work with other defensive layers to achieve additional Physical Damage Reduction.
This is a statistic that is added to Physical Damage Reduction provided by Armor. First, Physical Damage Reduction of Armor is calculated using the following formula, where A is the total Armor and D is the total Physical Damage of the incoming strike:
Physical Damage Reduction From Armor= A/(A+5*D)
Once Physical Damage Reduction percentage is calculated, all sources of additional Physical Damage Reduction are added together. They are then added directly to this percentage to provide the final total Physical Damage Reduction.
Unlike Armor, it is capped at a maximum reduction of 90%, though additional Physical Damage Reduction can also mitigate physical damage over time, such as Bleeding or Corrupted Blood.
Elemental Damage Reduction
Now let’s talk about the other component of Endurance Charges, Elemental Damage Reduction. It works slightly differently, as it is not additive to Elemental Resistance, but instead provides multiplicative damage reduction.
For example, incoming Elemental damage is first mitigated by Resistance, then by Elemental Damage Reduction, and both Resistance and Elemental Damage Reduction are capped at 90%.
Why Are Endurance Charges So Important?
The importance of using Endurance Charges has been amplified in POE 3.25 for a few reasons.
First, while Additional Physical Damage Reduction has always been a very powerful stat, Elemental Resistance that these Endurance Charges once provided was almost always wasted on builds that didn’t specialize in Charges. But now with Elemental Damage Reduction, these Charges are very useful for every build.
On top of that, the way Physical Damage is converted to Elemental Damage has been significantly nerfed, and many builds have a harder time fighting Physical Damage than before, which is another reason we desperately need Endurance Charges.
So, no matter the reason or build, you’re going to need to find a way to get those Charges into your build. Just to be clear here, we’re going to be focusing on most Non-Lower Left Passive Skill Tree builds, as these builds require some alternate methods to get Charges.
How To Get Endurance Charges?
First, let’s look at one of the most basic ways to get Endurance Charges, which is crafting Minimum Charges on your Ring or Amulet.
Crafting Minimum Charges
This is a great way to get Charges into your build, especially early in your progression. While this may seem a bit insignificant for the amount of damage reduction each Charge provides, even just packing two Minimum Charges into your build can be very beneficial.
In addition to this, Minimum Charges have another benefit, which is that they cannot be removed by monsters. Because you may encounter a Charge Removal Rare Monster modifier, what it does is that the monster’s attacks will remove your Charges.
Enduring Cry
Next, we have Enduring Cry, a Warcry skill that was the go-to for many builds to gain Endurance Charges, and is suitable for many leagues. But in POE 3.25, Call to Arms Support was replaced with Autoexertion, which automates Warcries but prevents them from providing buffs or charges, so this is just as useless as Enduring Cry.
That being said, Enduring Cry is still a powerful tool to slot into builds as a standalone ability, especially when it provides Charges when you need them most.
The application of this skill requires calculating the power of enemies within its area of effect and grants one Endurance Charge for every five points of power. Common monsters count as 1 power, Magic counts as 2 power, Rare monsters count as 10 power, and Unique monsters count as 20 power.
Therefore, using this Enduring Cry next to a Rare monster is guaranteed to provide at least two Endurance Charges, and next to a Unique monster, it will provide at least four Endurance Charges for many players.
Honestly, this option is probably the least ideal way to get Charges, but at the same time, it’s basically the lowest investment method available. For a very low investment of POE Currency, you can get Endurance Charges that keep your build running.
Enduring Composure
The next method has to do with a Cluster Jewel, Enduring Composure. You can find it on a Small Cluster Jewel or Megalomaniac Cluster Jewel at item level 68 or higher.
Now, this is a fairly popular option. You can put Endurance Charges into your build, and as long as you have been hit recently, this Jewel will allow you to gain a Charge every second. Especially considering the new changes introduced in POE 3.25, a lot of builds still count being hit after blocking a hit. So Endurance Charges will grant a Charge after you block a hit, even if you are not currently taking damage.
Eldritch Body Armour Implicit Modifiers
The other option you will have for Endurance Charge generation is one that is quickly becoming popular in POE 3.25 leagues. That is using Eldritch Body Armour Implicit to gain Endurance Charges per interval.
This modifier starts with Charges being generated every 15 seconds at the lowest tier, and every 10 seconds at the highest tier.
Now, as mentioned before, gaining new Charges will reset the duration of existing Charges of that type. So if you can get enough Endurance or Generic Charge duration, you will be able to maintain Endurance Charges using this method.
Outro
In conclusion, there are many other ways to generate Charges that are more niche or build specific, but the ones we mention here are more widely available in terms of application. So if you haven’t taken one of these methods and loaded Endurance Charges into your build, then get going now!
Even for the seemingly small amount of damage reduction they provide per Charge, they really do matter when you have enough Endurance Charges. It’s definitely something you’ll want to take advantage of in almost every build. So grab yourself some Endurance Charges now, you won’t regret it!
Hello fellow exiles! In this guide, we are going to share an overwhelming build in POE 3.25, Crit Viper Strike of the Mamba Trickster. Not only does it have excellent damage, but it is also incredibly tanky and has a pretty high survivability.
In this guide, we are going to talk about everything you need to know about this build and how it has improved compared to the last league. Without further ado, let’s get straight to it.
Skill
First of all, our skill selection is Viper Strike of the Mamba. When you hit an enemy, you will inflict poison on it. But you can’t inflict poison on the target more than once. In other words, this skill will inflict much more damage than the original one because we will use this mechanic to inflict very high poison damage on one hit.
Scaling Damage
To scale the damage dealt by this build, then you need to stack a Cluster Jewel notable, Low Tolerance. This way, the damage you deal to non-poisoned enemies will be increased by 300%.
This build has 6 of these Cluster Jewels, and we also took Poison Mastery, which does the same thing as Low Tolerance.
In terms of numbers, we are increasing poison damage by 2.1k%, which already sounds crazy, but we are not going to stop there. In Settlers of Kalguur league, Perfect Agony got a redesign, and they made it even more powerful than the previous league. To use this keystone, we need to reach 100% Critical Chance, otherwise we will not deal poison or any damage.
How To Optimize This Build?
Reaching 100% Critical Chance with this build is the first optimization strategy we did. The previous version of the build used Ungil’s Harmony, which is a very large Critical Chance increase. But let’s face it, if you want to be a super tank, then this is definitely not the best choice for you.
So we give up this Amulet and trade it for a rare Amulet worth 40 Chaos Orbs, Corruption Idol.
But the key question is how we will reach the critical chance cap, and the answer is to use a combination of Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh Jewel. We will borrow Assassin Ascendancy, Ambush and Assassinate notable. This will increase our critical hits on full health enemies by 100%, and the same effect will occur when the enemy’s health is below 50%.
But you may be wondering, what happens when the boss’s health is not full or low? Actually, this will only happen in Uber boss fights, but in harder boss fights, we will use Ambush, so it will immediately give us 100% critical chance no matter what.
Your biggest and best multiplier comes from secondary sources using Totem setup. We can have 3 of these things, and they will help stack Wither on bosses, increasing chaos damage by 90% by default. So, for each big boss fight, you will have to wait about 3 seconds to get 15 stacks of Wither.
Meanwhile, if you have Anathema equipped, you will be able to apply 3 different curses. The first one uses Alchemist’s Mark, as this synergies well with poison damage. Despair reduces the enemy’s chaos resistance. There is also a defensive curse, Enfeeble, which greatly reduces enemy damage.
Combining all of these, we can tank almost any non-Uber boss with just one click.
Defensive Tips
Defensively, we use a lot of defensive layers. Let’s start with the biggest Energy Shield.
We will stack Energy Shield, which will give us the base life pool. We chose Trickster because this is the only Ascendancy that can scale Energy Shield from Evasion on Body Armour. Also, this build gets a new base in Settlers of Kalguur league that is much stronger than the previous league, because of Escape Artist notable.
Now let’s start stacking damage reduction. Trickster Ascendancy has a nice advantage. Because its notable Ascendancy passive, Spellbreaker, not only helps us limit our Spell Suppression, but also reduces the spell damage we receive when we are at full Energy Shield. This is very useful when fighting Sirus Meteor or any big hitting spell.
Physical Damage Reduction
Next, let’s look at how to deal with physical damage. Because if you want to withstand Uber Shaper’s Slam, you will need a greater physical damage reduction.
In fact, we have 23% damage reduction, and when we stand still, the physical damage received is reduced by 21% because of the use of another key item, which is Arctic Armor. In addition, you can also use 1 Minimum Endurance Charge to reduce the physical and elemental damage received, because it was redesigned in POE 3.25 leagues.
Increasing our maximum resistance will protect us from high elemental damage so that we can stand still in Shaper’s Slam. We take much less damage from Sirus Meteor, so we can achieve damage reduction by just running an Elemental Resistance Flask.
How To Maintain Uptime Of Flasks?
But the question is, how are we going to maintain these Flasks without a Pathfinder? This is where another unique item in this build comes in, Tides of Time Belt, which will give us 3 Flask Charges every 3 seconds. This ensures that all Flasks we use have 100% uptime.
In addition, another Charge buff on Body Armor is also crucial. You can use some Tattoos on Passive Skill Tree to extend Flask Effect Duration, and assign Careful Conservationist and Natural Remedies to get more Flask Effect and Charge buffs.
Recovery
As we mentioned before, Recovery is also very strong in this build.
This is mainly because we use a unique Flask, which is Sorrow of the Divine, which will give us Zealot’s Oath keystone passive effect, which converts Life regeneration to Energy Shield.
Additionally, Life Flasks also give us a unique effect of restoring Energy Shield, which is why I used Hybrid Flasks and Life Flasks. So when we are standing still in our hideout, we will have 1.6 Energy Shield Recovery. If we start taking damage, we can use Life Flasks, which will give us another 500 additional Recovery.
Another reason to use Hybrid Flasks is because this build cannot leech mana. When our Arcanist Brand starts using the curses we have, it depletes our mana pool. So, this time, I used this Flask with a mod that the effect will not be removed when the unreserved mana is full. But remember, this will not give you Life Recovery part if you are not taking damage.
Final Thoughts
Anyway, I have to say that this is the most satisfying tank crit build I have ever played. The difficulty of this build is amazing though, and it may not be for players who are just getting into the game. Overall, Crit Viper Strike of the Mamba Trickster Build feels good, something you can easily afford and complete everything the game has to offer on a reasonable budget.
