Getting Stronger Guide

Introduction

Welcome Exiles! If you find yourself stuck, frustrated or feel like you've hit a brick wall then you're in the right place! Builds and gearing in Path of Exile can be very complicated and it's very easy to miss out on things you might consider "small" parts of a build. Learn all about how to get stronger!

You have 2 different options for obtaining more character power: You can purchase better items through the Trade Website or you can grind it out and craft/find your own. Keep in mind that the following tips may not apply to your build. We are simply listing some common options available to help you find a solution!

General Defence Advice

Building layers of defence is a necessary step to creating a great build. Without them you die in every Map, experience random one-shots and likely become too frustrated to play. There are simple steps to obtaining large amounts of defence, at the cost of giving up only a little damage. Find a balance that fits your build and investment.

Defensive Flask mods

• Purchase or Orb of Alteration spam % increased Armour/Evasion Rating during Flask effect.
• Purchase or Orb of Alteration spam % reduced Effect of Curses on you during Flask Effect
• Buy Instilling Orb and Glassblower's Bauble, and put Used when Charges reach full on your flask.
• Orb of Alteration spam or purchase Flasks that have Gain # Charges when you are Hit by an Enemy
  • This helps maintain 100% uptime when used with Used when Charges reach full

Guard Skills

Every build needs to use a Guard Skill. You can have only one active on you at a time, but they provide invaluable defence.

• Molten Shell or Steelskin provide a bubble of damage absorption.
• When using Molten Shell you need to have >10k Armour.
  • Steelskin should be put on Left Mouse Button (LMB) to auto-cast when you move.
  • Molten Shell should exactly be level 10, linked with a level 1Cast when Damage Taken Support to trigger only after you've taken damage.
    • Vaal Molten Shell can still be used manually.
• Arcane Cloak should be used on Mana stacking builds only.
• Immortal Call mitigates a ton of physical damage, but only when you're consuming Endurance Charges.

Auras

• Determination, Grace and Defiance Banner. This is a typical combo and when used with the above Flasks, they provide the largest and cheapest defence boost.
  • Combine these with Aura effect and Armour/Evasion gear.

Spell Suppression Chance (Mitigates 50% of Spell Damage)

• Cap Suppression at 100%. Watch out for a "fake" 10% from Revenge of the Hunted. x% chance to Suppress Spell Damage can roll on any gear that naturally has Evasion Rating. This includes Armour + Evasion hybrid gear.
• Right side of the Tree builds should ALWAYS have 100% chance to Suppress Spell Damage.

Attack and Spell Block (Prevents all damage from blocked hits)

• The left and bottom of the Tree has a lot of Attack and Spell Block nodes that are worth picking up.
• Tempest Shield or Versatile Combatant are easy ways to obtain Spell Block.
• Recover 3-5% of Life when you Block is invaluable for recovery and is easily rolled on a Shaper-influenced Shield with Pristine Fossil.

Pantheon Upgrades

• Pantheon upgrades are an important step to having a complete build.
• Upgrade the Soul of the Brine King to also have Cannot be Frozen and 50% reduced Effect of Chill on you.
• See our Pantheon article for more information .

Chaos resistance

• Many monsters deal Chaos Damage. Even if it's difficult to obtain, get 30% or more Chaos Resistance to prevent large spikes of damage.
• Harvest Reforge Chaos on your gear for Chaos Resistance.

Physical damage mitigation

• Armour alone is not enough. You need additional mitigation to make the Armour calculation work in your favor
  • Large hits make Armour work less effectively.
  • Aim for a minimum of 25k Armour.
• Harvest Reforge Physical on Armour or hybrid Body Armours until you hit #% additional Physical Damage Reduction.
  • This pairs well with Armour + Evasion hybrid Body Armours to try and hit %chance to Suppress Spell Damage.
• Endurance Charges provide 4% Physical Damage Reduction each.
  • Endurance Charge on kill Unveild onto Rings. Take Disciple of the Unyielding, Overcharged or Aggressive Bastion on the Passive Tree
  • Enduring Composure: Gain 1 Endurance Charge every second if you've been Hit Recently. This one of the most common ways to generate Endurance Charges for builds.
  • Minimum Endurance Charges crafted onto Rings from the Unveiled craft.
• Physical Damage taken as Elemental Damage
  • Taste of Hate, Watcher's Eye modifiers while affected by Purity skills and crafted or rolled onto Helmets through the bench and Lesser Eldritch Ichor.
  • Very helpful to make Armour more effective against large Physical Hits.

Avoidance

• Evasion Rating
  • Stops attacks from hitting you. Extremely reliable in large amounts, but even only 6k Evasion Rating can give you 40% chance to Evade Attacks.
  • Jade Flask + % increased Evasion Rating during Flask effect and some Evasion gear can provide enough to hit 5k.
  • Grace is a cheap way to obtain a lot of Avoidance when used in junction with the above flask setup.
• Elusive
  • Every 100% Effect of Elusive gives 15% chance to Avoid all Damage from Hits.
  • If using Nightblade Support or 8% chance to gain Elusive on Critical Strike from Redeemer-influenced boots, make sure to cycle your Elusive with Withering Step to maintain near full Effect of Elusive.

Ailments

• Shock makes you take increased damage and Chill makes your character slow enough for enemies to Hit. You need to have some reduction in effect against these to prevent death.
• Purity of Elements provides full Ailment Immunity.
• Tempest Shield provides Shock Immunity.
• "Soul of Garukhan" Minor pantheon gives 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you.
• Brine King Major Pantheon upgrade gives 50% reduced Effect of Chill on you.
• Gloves can have the crafted mod 40% reduced Effect of Chill and Shock on you. Rings can have 50% reduced Effect of Chill OR Shock on you.
• You can also obtain Harvest crafts to add Implicits to your jewels giving 15% reduced Effect of Shock OR Chill on you.

Recovery

• Life Gain on Hit
  • Shaper-influenced Rings for Spells, Elder-influenced Rings for Attacks, Watcher's Eye (also Energy Shield), Life Gain on Hit Support, Claw Bases and Poacher's Mark.
  • This is only a good form of recovery for fast hitting abilities, or those that spam lots of smaller hits.
• Leech - Default Maximum of 20% of your Life or 10% of your Energy Shield per second
  • Blood Rage for Physical Attack Leech, Energy Leech Support for Energy Shield Leech.
  • Life and Mana Leech or Clever Thief or Life and Mana on the bottom and right side of the tree.
• Recoup
  • Used mainly for self-damaging builds (Boneshatter, Forbidden Rite). Still useful for other builds, but you need a different primary recovery source.
• Life Flasks
  • Divine Life Flask rolled with:
    • % reduced Amount Recovered / Instant Recovery
    • % reduced Amount Recovered 135% increased Recovery rate / 50% of Recovery applied Instantly
    • % reduced Amount Recovered / Instant Recovery when on Low Life
  • Helps when you can react to the damage, but should not be the only recovery method.
• Life Regeneration
  • Left side of the Passive Tree has many Life Regeneration notables.
    • Warrior's Blood, Golem's Blood and Hearty.
  • Vitality combined with the Life Mastery for Reservation Efficiency.
  • Regenerate #-# Life per second rolled onto every non-Weapon gear piece.
  • Regenerate 3% of Life per second during Flask Effect crafted onto Flasks, Unveiled from Cinderswallow Urn.
• Mana Sustain
  • A Eternal Mana Flask is the main way to solve early Mana problems.
  • Mana reservation efficiency allows you to fit in more Auras and gives a large Mana pool to use.
  • Non-Channelling Skills have -(7-6) to Total Mana Cost can be crafted onto Rings and is Unveiled from "Elreon's Veiled" Rings.
  • Allocate Reduced Mana cost through Tireless, Righteous Decree, Mana Mastery and Cannibalistic Rite (life cost skills only).
  • A large amount of Mana Regeneration can be obtained through Clarity and allocating the Passive Tree nodes Quick Recovery, Mystic Bulwark (if you have Spell Block) and Deep Thoughts.

Getting More Damage

The easiest way to obtain more power in Trade League is to acquire it from other players. Read our Trade Guide if you need tips for etiquette and how how to search for items. The other option is crafting or grinding everything for yourself. Both are viable options!

Attack Builds

Attack builds can be tricky to set up and there are many details that can easily be overlooked. Using the Trade Site is the best use of your time and currency, because crafting/grinding out upgrades takes much more time and knowledge.

• 100% Accuracy
  • Buy gear with +x to Accuracy Rating on Helmets, Rings, Amulets and Gloves or Harvest Reforge Attack on these pieces.
• Weapon
  • Set a max buyout according to your budget, select your Weapon type and sort by Physical or Elemental DPS to find the best value on the Trade Site.
  • Create Elemental Weapons with Screaming Essence of Wrath, Screaming Essence of Hatred or Screaming Essence of Anger.
  • Create Physical Weapons with Screaming Essence of Contempt or Harvest Reforge Physical.
• Additional Strikes
  • Buy a pair of "Strike Skills target 1 additional nearby Enemy" Gloves.
  • Allocate or Anoint Tribal Fury - Golden Oil, Silver Oil and Opalescent Oil.
  • Apply Lesser Eldritch Ember on Gloves until you roll Strike Skills target 1 additional nearby Enemy.
• Frenzy Charges
  • Anomalous Blood Rage Frenzy Charges on hit against Unique enemies.
  • Poacher's Mark or Sword Mastery/Mark Mastery Masteries give Frenzy Charges on hit against Unique enemies.
• Rage Generation
  • Purchase a pair of Gloves with the Implicit Gain 1 Rage on Hit with Attacks, no more than once every 1.2 seconds.
  • Axe Mastery Mastery or spam Lesser Eldritch Ember on Gloves.
• Intimidate - Enemies take 10% increased attack damage
  • Obtained on the Passive Tree while using Axes with Cleaving.
  • Using Lesser Eldritch Ember on Gloves until you obtain 15% chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit
• Impale Chance and Effect (Physical Attacks)
  • Watcher's Eyes with Impales last 2 additional hits
  • Impale Support and wheels on the Tree.
• Marks and Curses
  • Use Sniper's Mark if you're a projectile build, or a Curse that matches your primary damage.

Elemental Spell builds

Spell builds don't have to cap Accuracy and worry about Weapon damage upgrades, but that only means the few things you do miss are going to be more impactful. Below are some ways to purchase or craft some extra Spell Damage.

• Gem levels
  • Gem levels are very important so purchase your main damage gem at level 21 and a +1 to Level of all (Gem's Tag) Skill Gems. Ex: Fireball would get +1 to Level of all Fire Skill Gems
  • Level multiple copies of your main Skill Gem in your weapon swap setup. Corrupt them once they're level 20 to try upgrading them to level 21.
• Caster Weapon upgrades
  • Buy a caster Weapon with 3-4 good mods and an open slot for you to craft.
  • Harvest Reforge Caster/Physical/Elemental matching to your Gem's tag.
• Cast Speed
  • Purchase a Flask with % increased Cast Speed during Flask effect.
    • Or Orb of Alteration spam until it's on one of your Flasks.
  • Watcher's Eye with Cast Speed while affected by Zealotry
  • Use Spell Echo Support. This also helps with Mana, as you only pay the cost for the first repeat.

Both builds

Here are a few things that increase your damage no matter what type of build you're playing.

• High Critical Strike Chance
  • Purchase or Harvest Reforge Critical on Diamond Flasks for % increased Critical Strike Chance during Flask Effect.
  • Purchase or Harvest Reforge Critical on a Hunter-Influenced Body Armour for Attacks/Spells have +#% to Critical Strike Chance
  • Pick up Arcane Potency and Doom Cast for spells. For attacks get Dismembering and Disemboweling.
  • Assassin's Mark + Mark On Hit Support
  • Increased Critical Strikes Support
  • Increased Critical Damage Support
• 6-linked setups
  • Purchase a 6-linked base with good modifiers.
  • Buy a +2 to Socketed Gems Corruption on Tabula Rasa, Skin of the Lords or Skin of the Loyal
  • Grab a Tabula Rasa or purchase a 6-linked base off the Trade Site. Use Essences until you hit Life + Resistances.
• Onslaught - Temporary Buff that gives 20% increased Attack, Cast and Movement speed.
  • Unveil % chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill and craft onto Boots.
  • Allocate Graceful Assault on the bottom of the Passive Tree.
• Exposure
  • Buy a pair of Gloves with Exposure matching your Gem's tag or use Wave of Conviction/Frost Bomb.
• Lowering Monster Resistances
  • Purchase a Curse on hit Ring that applies the correct Curse for your Element.
  • Harvest Reforge Caster on the correct influenced base for the desired Curse, or link Hextouch Support, your Curse and Wave of Conviction for a great combo for bosses.
• Cluster Jewels
  • A good Large Cluster Jewel provides high value allocation, giving you more damage for less points compared to your Passive Tree.

If you're struggling with the content you're trying to complete, go back and do easier content. Grind Currency until you can purchase one of these upgrades that help all types of builds:

• Rampage Uniques
  • Rampage is a timed buff that starts when you kill a monster. Every 20 Rampage kills gives 2% increased Damage and 1% increased Movement Speed.
  • Flesh and Spirit, Bisco's Leash, Shadows and Dust, Wyrmsign and Null and Void are a few ways to obtain Rampage.
  • You can also use Sinvicta's Mettle swapping to it for your first kill, and then back to your real Weapon.

• The Gull and Shrine Atlas Passives
  • Shrines provide temporary but powerful buffs. Get increased Shrine effect on your Atlas Tree and through a few Uniques.
  • Killing monsters while wearing The Gull spawns Lesser Shrines giving less powerful versions of the "real" Shrines.

• Inspired Learning
  • Every Rare monster you kill gives you one of its modifiers for 20 seconds. This leads to large, but random power spikes.
  • You need to have the Jewel in a place with 4 Notables allocated within its range to enable this effect.

Summary

• Purchasing a Rampage Unique, The Gull or Inspired Learning to improve your Mapping experience and speed.
• Purchase or craft better gear for your character and always invest into it.
• Find your balance between offence and defence and invest in your build accordingly.
• Determination, Grace and Defiance Banner with Granite Flask and Jade Flask. These provide the largest and cheapest defences available.
• If you have any questions, come ask them on my livestream twitch.tv/tripolarbear

Credits

Written by Tripolarbear.
Reviewed by Wudijo.