Path Of Exile 3.26 Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist Build: How To Choose Skills And Gear?

As you know, Secrets of the Atlas expansion brought a lot of changes to Path of Exile. And perhaps because it has been so long since the last update, 3.26 league has a lot of new content, covering all aspects of the game. Some of these new additions are based on the optimization of existing mechanics, and make the original mechanics work better in a new way similar to upgrades, such as Runegraft. Based on this, we will introduce you to the specific role of Runegraft and how to get it. What Is Runegraft? In general, Runegraft should be considered an item in the game, but because of its special role, you can also think of it as a certain currency. The main function of Runegraft is to convert passive masteries in your existing passive skill tree into other masteries. How Does It Work? Before figuring out how Runegraft works, you need to first understand what passive mastery is. It is actually a special passive skill in the skill tree that belongs to the passive skill clusters and is not part of the class starting areas. Once you have assigned the notables in the relevant skill clusters, you can assign the passive mastery. You can then select the bonus you need from the list of passive bonuses in the relevant skill clusters. If you want to change your Runegraft later, you can only utilize another Runegraft to replace it, or utilize Orb of Scouring effect to remove the existing Runegraft. Since the bonus provided by passive mastery is quite powerful, any Runegraft will be useful. How To Get Runegrafts? The way to get this item is related to Settlers of Kalguur’s shipping mechanic that was saved from 3.25 league to 3.26 league. The mechanic requires you to load the collected resources and the crew onto the ship, and when the ship returns, you will find that the resources have been exchanged for the required POE currency and items. After entering Mercenaries of Trarthus League, Runegraft has been added to the rewards that can be obtained in this way. However, the reward drops are random, which means that you may not get Runegraft you want after multiple transactions. At this time, you need to repeat the transportation process until you get Runegraft you want. As for the repeated Runegraft, don’t worry about wasting it. You can trade with other players in exchange for currency or other items. It should be noted that the goods may encounter accidents such as pirate attacks or bad weather during transportation, and the higher the value of the goods, the greater the possibility of encountering risks and the more serious the consequences, causing you to lose a certain proportion of the goods. When encountering pirates, they will hijack your crew and cargo. In the face of this situation, there are three countermeasures: Fight the pirates: After winning, not only will the crew and cargo be released, you will also get rich loot! Of course, if you fail, everything will be lost. Give a ransom: Usually in the form of gold, and then the pirates will return the goods and crew. Although this approach is less risky than fighting, you will not get loot. Abandon all ships: You will lose everything. What Runegrafts Are There? There are many Runegrafts available in the game. Their names and specific functions are as follows: Runegraft of Bellows: If you have not utilized Warcried recently, your Warcried speed will be increased by 100%. Runegraft of Blasphemy: 30% chance to curse an enemy with a random curse when hitting them (provided they are not affected by other curses). Runegraft of Gemcraft: +1 level for all non-special support gems. Runegraft of Loyalty: When you are affected by elemental ailments, you have a 40% chance to transfer them to nearby minions. Runegraft of Quaffing: Non-instant mana recovery in flasks is also restored to health. Runegraft of Recompense: When the projectile ends, each unconsumed chain restores 10% of the skill’s mana consume, up to a maximum of 50%. Runegraft of Restitching: When you take critical hit damage, 40% of the damage is restored as health. Runegraft of Stability: Your lucky or unlucky effects are instead unexciting. Runegraft of the Angler: All attacks made while holding a fishing rod are critical hits. Runegraft of the Bound: Increase the bonus gained by 20% with gloves equipped and decrease the bonus gained by 20% with boots equipped. Runegraft of the Combatant: When you attack an enemy with a higher percentage of health remaining than you, you deal 50% more damage. Runegraft of the Fortress: Reduce attributes by 10%, increase global defense by 40%. Runegraft of the Jeweler: When you equip a two-handed weapon, you deal 10% more damage per unlinked socket. Runegraft of the Novamark: Nova spells have a chance to be cast around a marked target. Runegraft of the River: Grants you a 20% chance to heal to full health when at low health. Runegraft of the Sinistral: Increases your off-hand attack speed by 10%. Runegraft of the Soulwick: Grants you 1 Vaal Soul per second. Runegraft of the Warp: Causes debuffs on you to expire 30% faster and debuffs on you to expire 30% slower. Runegraft of the Witchmark: Utilizing a spell consumes an additional 8% of your maximum life, but also deals 2% of your maximum life as chaos damage. Runegraft of Time: Utilizing a skill has a 20% chance to not consume a cooldown. Runegraft of Treachery: Your skill auras affect allies as well as enemies, and your skill retention is 15% increased. That’s all about Runegraft. If you want your character to become stronger by changing passive mastery, don’t miss this item! Good luck!

There is no doubt that the most eye-catching ARPG in recent times is Path of Exile 2, which was launched at the end of 2024. Although it is still in the early access stage and has not yet shown its full version charm to you, POE 2 is better than the recent performance of another strong competitor Diablo 4 - after all, the latter’s Season 7 has not yet arrived. But perhaps you have a question, since Path of Exile 2 is in full swing, is it still necessary to experience the first game in the same series in the new 2025? Based on this, we will make a comprehensive comparison of the recent performance of POE 1, POE 2 and Diablo 4 to provide you with some reference. Path Of Exile 1 Performance Review In the past year, from 3.24 Necropolis to 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, even though it has been more than ten years since its official release, POE 1 has always been committed to maintaining its freshness by constantly updating the league, which is one of the main reasons for its enduring popularity. POE 3.24 The league was officially launched on March 29, 2024, and added a lot of new content based on the past leagues, such as the league mechanism that allows you to configure the difficulty of monsters and POE Currency rewards, and Embers of the Allflame items that allow you to encounter abnormal monsters with special rewards. POE 3.25 As the most recent Path of Exile 1 league released to you, POE 3.25 can be said to have made many special updates to the game. In terms of combat, version 3.25 has completely changed your melee mode and introduced Warden class to replace Raider. But besides these, the most eye-catching is the challenge league mechanism that allows you to build and manage your own town. It is worth noting that it is this league mechanism that allows you to experience a new and more complete trade system in POE 1, allowing you to obtain more necessary materials by hiring workers and port trade besides obtaining POE Divine Orbs through battle. Compared To Path Of Exile 2 As a sequel, POE 2 must innovate in many aspects to ensure that it will not be overshadowed by the brilliance of the previous work, and based on the current performance, it has completely done this. First of all, it is worth mentioning that it responds to the response and expectations of fans in the past, and launched the couch co-op that POE 1 did not have, as well as cross-platform games and cross-platform progress. In view of the continuous evolution of current game devices, it is imperative for a large-scale ARPG to keep you and provide you with more convenience in playing. In the specific game content, POE 2 allows you to provide more unique mechanisms for game characters through support gems based on skill and class differences. This undoubtedly gives you more control and customization, giving you more personality than Path of Exile 1 for any class and weapon you want to experience. If you like the boss battles of POE series, then POE 2 will never let you down. It brings more than 100 unique bosses to fight. Besides the improved boss battles in the endgame content, you also have the opportunity to get a brand new combat experience through dedicated maps for each boss. And the bosses in POE 2 are more challenging, requiring you to use critical thinking to deploy strategies and make the battles more interesting. Based on the above changes, there is no doubt that Path of Exile 2 is better than the first game in these aspects, especially the narrative method of the second part is also better. In addition, all the playing threshold of the first and second parts are actually not low. So if you are an old player of the series, you can experience an upgraded version of Path of Exile through POE 2 in the new year. But if you haven’t come into contact with POE yet, then I think you can also consider playing POE 1. Because compared to the second part, it still has some unique mechanisms, such as the fun league and trade system in 3.25. And the first game has been running for ten years, so it may be more stable. And if you plan to play POE 1 in the near future, you still can solve the possible POE Currency shortage through the giveaway information and activities in iGMeet Discord, avoiding worries. Compared To Diablo 4 In the past year, Diablo 4 has always been popular and discussed, especially after October, with the launch of DLC Vessel of Hatred and Season 6, it quickly attracted a group of new players. Although Diablo 4 was launched in 2023, the development history of the entire Diablo series is much longer than Path of Exile. So although POE 1 also has its own characteristics, Diablo 4 is better than Path of Exile 1 in terms of the smoothness of the game and the exquisiteness of the picture, and the experience will be better. Although in the face of 2025, except for Season 7 which will be launched soon, Diablo 4 has not yet revealed whether it will launch new DLC or other major activities, but there is no doubt that Diablo 4 is the current core of Diablo series, so any updates will basically be launched in Diablo 4, and the development focus of POE series in 2025 is undoubtedly the second part. So from this perspective, in 2025, Diablo 4 may bring you more surprises than POE 1. Based on the above review and comparison, if you are only interested in POE series, then in the next year you can choose to play the first or second part according to your own preferences; but if you have to choose between Diablo 4 and POE 1, the former will be better. I hope you can continue to enjoy the fun of ARPG in the new year! Thank you for reading!

With the official announcement from the game developers, POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League will be officially released on July 26, and players have also ushered in their long-awaited melee enhancements and Gladiator remakes. So now that the release time is getting closer, have you chosen which league starter to choose in Settlers of Kalguur League? As we all know, a strong league starter can develop your early league economy more efficient and easily obtain your POE Currency and gear in the build. This guide will introduce some suitable builds for POE 3.25, most of which focus on melee. Each of them is very stable and has been enhanced to a certain extent at this stage, which can make your exploration in Settlers of Kalguur League easier. Boneshatter Juggernaut Boneshatter Juggernaut has received certain enhancements in both the basic version and the complex trauma version. Some players may still worry about whether Juggernaut class’s previous Unbreakable Ascendancy will change in this POE 3.25. In fact, this worry is unnecessary. Endurance charges now reduce the elemental damage provided, instead of just changing elemental resistances and physical damage as before. You will find that the new configuration may be more powerful now, and the role of the new Unbreakable Ascendancy node is the same as before, without any changes. If you put divine flesh into this build, Boneshatter Juggernaut will become even more powerful. In addition, Quality multiplicative changes will also have a very big impact on this build, especially to increase damage and enhancing offense. I think this should offset the nerf in Determination Aura. Gear Weapon: Brood Etcher Despot Axe Helmet: Glyph Star Ezomyte Burgonet Armor: Forth Vow Devout Chainmail Rings: Eagle Finger Amethyst Ring, Carrion Hold Amethyst Ring Amulet: Eternal Struggle Onyx Amulet Gloves: Tanu Ahi Wyrmsclae Gauntlets Belt: Magnate Studded Belt Boots: Brood Sole Goliath Greaves Frostblades Trickster In Path Of Exile 3.25, the second best league starter build is Frostblades Trickster because of its high speed, high evasion, and higher damage. Many players worry that it is an early build that will only be dominant in the early stages and weaker in the later stages. This worry is unnecessary and absolutely not a problem. And in POE 3.25, Frostblades Trickster has not been affected at all. In this build, Frostblade skill gem not only increases its own damage by 265 but also enhances its own basic freezing effect. This makes Frostblades Trickster even more powerful. In this version and stage, Frostblades Trickster has undergone many nerfs, but it is still strong and has the potential to become an absolute beast in this league. This is also a Path of Exile Settlers of Kalguur melee build that you should try. Gear Weapon: Essence Only Claw Offhand: Day 1 Shield Helmet: Heatshiver Armor: Day 1 Chest Rings: Maming, Day 1 Amulet: New Item Gloves: Day 1 Gloves Belt: Day 1 Belt Boots: Day 1 Boots Shield Crush Juggernaut Shield Crush Juggernaut has been around for a few leagues, and in POE 3.19 it was a very slow league start build, but now in POE 3.25 it’s become very powerful. The way this build works is that you stack your armor with your shield soldiers to protect yourself. In addition to Energy shield, it also adds fixed damage per 75 armor, and also increases your crit based on Energy shields' stats. This means that this is a very powerful crit stacking build. According to the patch notes, the two skills in this build come with two buffs themselves. One of them has a fixed base damage DPS buff, and the other has a high-end DPS buff that scales with armor, which makes Shield Crush Juggernaut one of the most powerful builds in Path of Exile 3.25. In addition, this build is one of the few builds in the game that can scale to extreme armor levels through shield quality, and its multiplicative changes will greatly increase the DPS of this build. Gear Weapon: Dream Feather Replica Offhand: Emperor’s Vigilance Helmet: Enemy Horn Armor: Fourth Oath Rings: Cataclysm Knot, Storm Ring Amulet: Adur’s Uprising Gloves: Tanu Ahi Belt: Perseverance Boots: Cataclysm Slippers Perforate Slayer Although Perforate Slayer does not have a complete end-game configuration, players believe that it has the potential to become the best POE 3.25 league starter. In Perforate Slayer, the damage of the perforate skill gem is increased from 265% to 622%, which will make your battles easier. But it also has certain risks. If you are not an experienced player, it is not recommended for you to use this build. Because it is very likely that when you use this build to kill people, your own health may not be very healthy. Gear Weapon: Death Roar Offhand: Crown of Sorrow Helmet: Enemy Horn Armor: Death Jack Rings: Mind’s Eye, Dusk Eye Amulet: Doom Amulet Gloves: Death Knuckles Belt: Chaos Trap Boots: Vortex Slippers That’s it for the best builds you can try out in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. Let’s get started on July 26!

Welcome, fellow players! Let me share an effective setup for Champion aura stacking with you today. In the new League in Path of Exile 3.24, some new Uniques appear, and I will pick the Hand of Phrecia to stack the Champion aura and explore the interaction in this setup. However, for the most part, this setup is very limiting in terms of build scope. I do believe that this setup can be effective. You just need to find the right avenue to go down to make the best use of this combination of mechanics. I will show the potential of these 2 unique items together for the Champion. Champion Ascendancy The Champion ascendancy has the Inspirational notable which grants 30% increased aura effect and another 5% on the small node as well, and it also makes Banner skills have no Reservation, which is quite important to how many Reservation skills you're going to want to fit in with a setup like this. Passive Tree The passive tree paths up into the Scion starting area, grabs the Mana Reservation Efficiency Mastery for 3 points, and then through the Evasion wheel, going into the Ranger's starting area for the Charisma wheel and also taking the Mastery for 8% increase damage per aura affecting you. That Mastery is going to provide a great value for 1 point spent in this type of build, and then the tree also passes up the side of the Scion area to grab the Leadership wheel too for even more Mana Reservation Efficiency and aura effect. Instead of socketed gems being supported by Level 30 Generosity, we have socketed gems have 49% increased effect of Non-Curse aura from your skills, and this simulates those socketed gems being supported by Level 30 Generosity while also using the Hand of Phrecia. This current setup is using Grace, Determination, triple Purity, and Defiance Banner, and you can find that just with the scaling on this small passive tree, we're already at 42k Evasion, 30k armor, and 84% Maximum Elemental Resistances. Hand Of Phrecia The Hand of Phrecia will allow you to use Generosity Support to provide a huge aura effect boost to linked auras, which allows you to gain the aura effect from this support gem whilst the aura itself still affects you because the gloves have a modifier which states that auras only affect you and linked targets. Victario's Influence This unique body armor is very common and is typically used in builds to either support other players via a bunch of auras or empower the player's minions. It grants a large amount of Reservation Efficiency to socketed gems and supports those gems with Level 30 Generosity Support. The cool thing about Victario's Influence though is that it's so common that you can just purchase these cheaply or find enough of them to corrupt them with Vaal Orbs for a corrupted implicit. Skill Gems This build has all of its Mana reserved, but this is without using a helmet or any jewel sockets, so you can easily free up more Reservation Efficiency to pay skill cost with Mana. This will provide enough Mana for skill usage. So in this setup, there are all Level 20 gems improved to Level 21 with the Victario's Influence modifier, which grants +1 to socketed aura gem levels. You can corrupt these gems to be Level 21, which would bring their total gem levels to 22. In an aura stacking build, this extra 1% may seem trivial, but it's crucial. The aura effect breakpoint for gaining additional Maximum Resistance from these auras shifts from 25% to 20%. You're looking for +2 to the level of socketed aura gems or +2 to the level of socketed AOE gems. You could fix the sockets after hitting the corruption if you wanted to use Tainted Jeweller's Orb and Tainted Chromatic Orb. Final Thought This is just an example. You could use the classic Champion's best belt - Perseverance to make use of the arm and Evasion. You could instead choose to spec into Iron Reflexes on the tree and go for more of an armor stacking setup, but you’re unlikely to scale a Breach Core body armor for that type of build. If you didn’t want to use the triple Purity aura setup, you could instead go for a single Purity and drop the other 2 and then make use of Purity of Elements for the elemental ailment immunity that it provides and use melding of the flesh to gain all Maximum Elemental Resistances based on a single Purity of Elements that you chose to go with.