Path Of Exile 2 Multiplayer: How To Add Friends Or Form A Party?

Currently, the latest league of The Last of the Druids in Path of Exile 2 is in its mid-stage, and many players have completed the main campaign and entered the endgame through the interlude. In this more challenging game content, you will no longer face low- to mid-level monsters, but bosses with extremely high health and damage output.

In particular, Anomaly bosses added in the last league, and their encounters, although difficult to complete, are very valuable because you can find exclusive Lineage Support Gems from their drops, which can make your character’s endgame builds more effective.

After the changes in patch 0.4.0, there are 4 Anomaly bosses existing in POE 2, who previously appeared in Act 4 and three interludes. Since these encounters are all in the endgame, they are much more difficult to complete than those in the main campaign. So, you might really need this guide to killing Anomaly bosses from EZG.com.

1. Manoki, The Chosen

The first character introduced here is Manoki, the Chosen, whose prototype is Karui Chieftain, Tavakai from Act 4. It appears in Jade Isle map, but the way to enter the map is a bit peculiar: because its outer perimeter is shrouded in a vortex, you need to remove it before you can enter.

To clear the whirlpool, you need to explore Atlas near the water until you see a white whirlpool. Don’t interact with it yet; you need to clear the map connected to it and deactivate a Karui Beacon. This will unlock Jade Isle map.

Following the route explored on this map, you will soon find Manoki, the Chosen, the boss who has been waiting for you. Your encounter with it is still divided into three phases. Below are the key points and combat strategies for each phase.

Phase 1

In this phase, you will fight Manoki in semi-human form. Once its health drops to around 60%, the boss will transform and flee towards Tukohama’s shrine. Be sure to catch up with it and attack it during this time, otherwise it will regain full health. At the same time, be aware of its heavy blows.

Phase 2

Manoki will then launch attacks that have a corrupted effect, as well as some powerful heavy blows, which you need to dodge in time. Many attacks will cause the ground to grow spikes, but there is no need to worry too much, as their generation time is somewhat delayed. When its health drops to around 80%, the boss will transform again and regain full health.

Phase 3

At this point, the boss’s movement and attack speed will increase significantly, and it will also unleash numerous area-of-effect attacks. Therefore, you cannot prolong this phase of the battle, otherwise the entire arena will be covered by its area-of-effect damage, which will consume a lot of your healing potions and pose a significant threat.

However, this is merely a delaying tactic. To completely avoid immediate death after being attacked, you need to buy PoE 2 currency from EZG.com, where can enjoy a 10% OFF here using "XMAS" Code, allowing the equipped items to provide you with the maximum healing power.

After you have gone through all the hardships to complete this encounter, you will receive the following rewards:

• Kaom’s Madness
• Rakiata’s Flow
• Tawhoa’s Tending
• Tasalio’s Rhythm

2. Varloch, The Ashen Lord & Avelyne, The Withered Rose

This boss combination is located in Derelict Mansion map in Atlas of POE 2 The Last of the Druids league. This map and the encounter are sampled from The Curse of Holten Interlude. To enter it, you need to activate Draioch Hengestones in the connected maps first, which is very simple and can be done in two minutes.

Although bats fly around the map, they pose no threat to you, so you can safely search every house on the map to farm POE 2 currency and experience points by killing some low-level monsters. At the end of the map exploration, you will encounter Varloch, the Ashen Lord, and Avelyne, the Withered Rose.

Varloch’s attack style is very similar to Draven’s in Act 1, but more lethal; and Avelyne is a variant of Asinia, both possessing similar attack moves and the same weaknesses. Therefore, you only need to pay attention to the following two points.

Varloch will slam his sword into the ground, which is easy to dodge. However, you should pay more attention to the shockwaves that follow the slam and spread to the sides, which will cause you to lose a lot of health. Remember to use potions to replenish your lost health points promptly.

Avelyne will occasionally trap you in a Bone Cage and summon an Orbital Strike in that area, a brief but continuous damaging attack. You need to break Bone Cage quickly and escape. Defeating these two bosses will you receive the following rewards:

• Rigwald’s Ferocity
• Ailith’s Chimes
• Einhar’s Beastrite

3. Zahmir, The Blade Sovereign

Your encounter with Zahmir will take place on Sacred Reservoir map. You’ll need to remove Temporal Sandstorm in the desert to find it, which requires you to disable the three Temportal Tethers located in the connected maps.

This boss is a bit different from the previous ones; although its prototype is Azmadi, the Faridun Prince from The Stolen Barya Interlude, the challenge is somewhat reduced, making it less difficult. That being said, this battle still consists of two phases, as follows:

Phase 1

Although Zahmir will launch some combos at you, these attacks are predictable, so you can easily dodge them. It’s worth noting that these attacks not only damage you but also inflict a stagger effect, stunning you, so be extremely careful. When its health drops to around 40%, Zarokh, the Temporal, will pause time and restore the boss’s health to full.

Phase 2

Although he has entered the second phase, Zahmir’s attack power has not increased substantially. He will only unleash multiple time-related attacks, each with a slight delay. You can use this delay to observe the attack trajectory and dodge, but some attacks will miss the target, so be extra careful.

After completing all the dodging and killing maneuvers, you will receive the following rewards:

• Varashta’s Blessing
• Khatal’s Rejuvenation
• Zarokh’s Refrain
• Garukhan’s Resolve

4. Ytzara, Blood Oracle & Maztli, Flesh-Shaper

This last group of Anomaly bosses are Vaal brother-sister duo from Interlude 3 of Path of Exile 2. You can find them in the mountains area of ​​Estazunti’s Vault map; they are surrounded by a ring of corruption oozing, making them easy to spot. With the changes in the latest patch 0.4.0, you no longer need to search for Idol of Estazunti in connected maps to unlock this map.

Nowadays, once you defeat the bosses in these maps, a floating pillar will appear, allowing you to enter Estazunti’s Vault map. The only thing to be careful about in this encounter is not to focus on damaging or killing one of the bosses, because if one dies, the other will receive an unprecedented boost. Here are some things you need to pay attention to:

The primary concern is Claw attack from the female boss, which drains some of your health to heal herself. So, try to avoid this type of attack as much as possible and increase your own defense. And Corrupted Beam cast by the male boss will also deal you significant damage.

Additionally, you need to be aware that the male boss will transform into Vaal Goliath during the battle, granting him an additional area-of-effect attack. To counter this attack, you must stay as far away from the area of ​​effect as possible.

After successfully defeating these two bosses, you will receive the following rewards:

• Atalui’s Bloodletting
• Tacati’s Ire
• Paquate’s Pact

The above are the methods and precautions for finding and defeating all Anomaly bosses in the latest League of Path of Exile 2. Hopefully, this guide will help you complete all the encounters faster and claim the very generous rewards. Enjoy the game under the influence of patch 0.4.0!

Among numerous action RPGs, Path of Exile 2 boasts the most complex descriptions and calculation methods for affixes. Players in some regions even jokingly describe its gameplay as more difficult than a fiercely competitive exam, leaving many players struggling to create a perfect build to meet all campaign challenges.

The most difficult aspect to manage is Reduced Skill Effect Duration, which affects the duration of the skill’s effects, including delayed attacks and buffs. Since Reduced Skill Effect Duration exists as a percentage in POE 2, once it reaches 100%, your skill can be cast instantly without delay, allowing you to deal sustained high-intensity damage to enemies.

This is very important for builds that focus on using Ember Fusillade skill to achieve machine gun-like damage, as this affix allows for continuous and sustained fire damage to enemies. If you’re aiming to achieve this effect in the latest The Last of the Druids league, this guide offers a way to effectively stack the affix to 100% and create a complete build around it.

How To Achieve?

First, to minimize the duration of Ember Fusillade skill, you need to choose the right class. The best choice is Warrior, as its Titan Ascendancy class provides some passive nodes related to that affix. Combined with several nodes on your existing passive skill tree, reaching 100% is incredibly easy.

Therefore, we will directly build the character accordingly for level 70, which will give you 69 assignable passive skill points, and the 24 passive skill points provided by Book of Specialization, which is sufficient.

First, it’s crucial to clarify that Hulking Form Ascendancy Passive must be activated, as it increases the effectiveness of your smaller passive skills by 50%. By pairing these following nodes that have Reduced Skill Effect Duration affix, the trigger interval of your skills, especially Ember Fusillade skill, will differ by less than one second.

• Near at Hand: It provides 16% Reduced Skill Effect Duration, and the two smaller nodes leading to it each provide an 8% effect. Under the influence of Hulking Form, these effects rise to 12%, for a total of 24%.
• Forthcoming: As a primary Notable, it provides you with a 16% Reduced Skill Effect Duration, while the two smaller passives leading to it each provide a 12% reduction under the influence of Hulking Form, for a total of 24%.
• Two Smaller Passives Near Boundless Growth Notable: Each provides you with 4% Reduced Skill Effect Duration, which becomes 6% under the influence of Hulking Form, for a total of 12%.
• Searing Heat: This Notable provides you with an 8% Reduced Skill Effect Duration and a 100% Flammability Magnitude buff, which is very important for Ember Fusillade skill, which also deals fire elemental damage.

With this combination and the help of Hulking Form passive, you can easily achieve 100% Reduced Skill Effect Duration - 16% + 24% + 16% + 24% + 12% + 8%! Under this affix, your skill casting interval will be minimized, allowing you to unleash sustained high-damage attacks on a single target or a group of targets.

By the way, the last 8% can also be added by annotating your amulet using Liquid Despair, Concentrated Liquid, and Liquid Disgust, which will give you more opportunities to invest skill points in more effective damage boosts.

Builds Ideas

Once you reduce the duration of your skill effect to almost zero, you can create corresponding builds around that affix. The first option is to combine Ember Fusillade skill gem with Time of Need Spirit gem.

Previously, your active skill would generate tiny fire Embers that could briefly stay in place, and after a second or two of inactivity, they would automatically strike an enemy. Under the influence of this affix, these Embers will immediately launch an attack, giving the enemy no chance to breathe.

Also, remember to equip Dusk Vigil Ashen Unique Staff, which will trigger Ember Fusillade when you cast spells. Since you don’t cast the skill directly, Embers will fire and deal damage immediately after they form.

With damage output at its maximum, your defense also needs a boost, making Time of Need Spirit Gem essential. It continuously removes all debuffs and periodically restores health.

That sounds powerful, right? But it’s actually far from enough. With this best affix, this gem will continuously provide healing, which is extremely useful in both the leveling and endgame content of Path of Exile 2.

If you are using a build focused on spell-casting, you can also use Time of Need to convert mana consumption into health consumption to cast spells. This is somewhat risky, but not very threatening, because its health regeneration rate is faster than its consumption rate.

Of course, if Ember Fusillade doesn’t suit your playstyle, you can directly use other skills with an Aftershock effect, such as Earthquake Skill. This skill usually has a slight delay in its effect, but combined with this perfect affix, Aftershock will take effect immediately. With Time of Need, your builds will be virtually unbeatable!

The above outlines the method for achieving 100% Reduced Skill Effect Duration in PoE 2 The Last of the Druids league, along with the build strategy around it. Hopefully, this method will allow you to easily complete all main campaign content and the improved endgame content of this league, ultimately climbing the leaderboards and claiming more rewards.

In the recent Path of Exile 2 The Last of the Druids league, various builds centered around Lightning Arrow skill gem have become the preferred choice for players, as its extremely high ranged damage and fast attack speed are important for effectively farming experience and loot in the early and mid-game of the league.

If you’re looking for both an exploratory experience and a unique style, then using Ice Shot as the core of a niche build would be your best choice. This skill, combined with Amazon’s Weakness mechanic, makes it incredibly easy to inflict devastating damage on magic and rare enemies in all campaigns.

However, it must be pointed out that relying solely on Ice Shot skill and the strength of Amazon Ascendancy class itself is insufficient to complete parts of PoE 2 Interludes and endgame. So, it is essential to find some build options that can be placed in Ice Shot Amazon build from this guide, such as skills, passives, and item affixes of interest.

Precautions

It’s worth noting that while Ice Shot skill is powerful and visually appealing, you can only obtain it by using a Tier 9 Uncut Skill Gem, which is extremely difficult to acquire through regular exploration. Since there are a few things to keep in mind before you find that tier gem.

Since Ice Shot skill pairs best with bows, it’s recommended to use this weapon type from the start. Simultaneously, pair it with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod skill combinations for the fastest loot and experience gain. These factors will affect the attack damage you gain after crafting Ice Shot skill gems, as they are both projectile and elemental skills.

Once you equip Ice Shot skill, you don’t need to change your passive skill setup much, but you should change the item affixes from increasing lightning damage to increase frost damage to maximize the skill’s effectiveness.

Skills & Rotation

Due to the unique skill gem mechanic in Path of Exile 2, you’ll most likely have a complete skill setup after completing the main campaign but before starting the farming map. Before that, you just need to accumulate as many Uncut Skill Gems as possible for later one-time uncutting. At that time, you can choose the following skill gems and support gems.

• Ice Shot: Elemental Armament - Cold Penetration - Frost Nexus - Fork
• Herald of Ice: Cold Penetration - Deadly Herald - Cold Attunement - Overreach
• Freezing Salvo: Freeze - Concentrated Area - Ice Bite
• Snipe: Window of Opportunity - Concentrated Area - Close Combat - Inexorable Critical
• Ball Lightning: Shock - Blind - Considered Casting
• Freezing Mark: Prolonged Duration
• Barrage: Cooldown Recovery

For killing regular small monsters, you can use Ice Shot and Herald of Ice damage combination; if the monster level increases, you can add Freezing Mark skill to make them easier to freeze, and at the same time cast Ball Lightning for subsequent lightning attacks.

For situations where you can farm experience points and POE 2 currency by engaging in high-difficulty boss encounters, you can first use Freezing Mark and Ball Lightning to reduce the enemy’s health, then cast Freezing Salvo to freeze them, and finally cast Barrage and Snipe for continuous attacks to achieve a one-hit kill.

Ascendancy Passive Skill Tree

Since your character’s passive skill tree is basically complete by this point, and the gameplay and core mechanics of farming and leveling are similar, you don’t need to drastically change your original passive skill upgrade path. Just focus on increasing movement speed as needed.

Regarding Ascendancy passive tree provided by Amazon, it’s recommended that you first activate Predatory Instinct, which allows you to increase damage through Reveal Weakness mechanics. Then focus on nodes that provide critical strike chance buffs and activate Penetrate after completing the interlude.

The last passive node can be selected according to your exploration needs, but Stalking Panther is highly recommended here, as it will maximize the dodge chance provided by your helmet, gloves, and boots. This further enhances your character’s mobility, thus ensuring greater safety in combat.

Recommended Item Affixes

Finally, let’s look at the affixes of items that can be placed in Ice Shot Amazon build. It’s important to note that Bow and Quiver are crucial in this build, so you should maximize the affixes on these two items, no matter how much Path of Exile 2 currency you spend.

Furthermore, after selecting Stalking Panther passive skill node, you need to select a chest armor with hybrid ES/Evasion buffs to further increase the build’s mobility. In this case, you can pay attention to the following affixes on each item slot.

Bow

• Fixed Physical Damage
• Physical Damage
• Level of All Attack Skills
• Attack Speed

Quiver

• Damage with Bow Skills
• Fixed Physical/Cold Damage
• Level of All Projectile Skills
• Critical Hit/Damage

Wand

• Cast Speed
• Chance to Shock
• Level of all Spell Skills

Helmet

• Energy Shield/Evasion
• Life
• Attribute
• Resistances

Body

• Fixed Evasion
• Evasion
• Life
• Resistances

Amulet

• Spirit
• Resistances
• Energy Shield
• Global Defense

Rings & Gloves

• Fixed Damage
• Life/Mana
• Attribute
• Resistances

Belt

• Life/Mana
• Resistances
• Flask Life Recovery Rate

Boots

• Movement Speed
• Life/Mana
• Resistances

The above is a detailed introduction to the skills, passives, and item options in Ice Shot Amazon build in The Last of the Druids league of Path of Exile 2. Hopefully, this guide will help you create this excellent character more quickly and use it to complete more exploration missions. Have fun playing the game!

Vaal Temple is the core of Fate of the Vaal league mechanic in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0. Its most innovative aspect is that players need to build and complete their own dungeon. Vaal Temple tests not only players' combat abilities but also their planning and spatial awareness.

While this new mechanic presents a challenge, mastering its operation allows you to acquire abundant resources and exclusive rewards. Therefore, I will introduce you to all the important information about Vaal Temple, teaching you how to successfully operate it from unlocking methods, design, completion, and management.

What Is Vaal Temple?

A Vaal Temple is a player-customizable dungeon, or you can call it a Vaal Ruins. Players enter by activating Vaal Beacons scattered throughout the world. Unlike ordinary areas, it allows players to construct their own dungeon layout using room tiles unlocked through exploration and combat.

Then you'll need to experience the temple dungeon you built yourself, battling through numerous obstacles to finally find and defeat the final boss – Atziri, the Red Queen.

How To Unlock Vaal Ruins?

To enter the temple, you first need to create a character choosing Fate of the Vaal. You'll then see Vaal Beacons in some normal areas of PoE 2; these are circular areas glowing with a dark red light, where many ferocious monsters gather. Clearing Vaal Beacons is necessary to unlock Vaal Temple.

Players need to clear a total of 6 Vaal Beacons. Each major area on the map has at least one Vaal Beacon, so you'll have plenty of opportunities. Simply kill nearby enemies and successfully step into the circular area within the beacon to unlock it. Sometimes, valuable items may drop during the monster-killing process.

Successfully clearing six Vaal Beacons will unlock Vaal Ruins. Once unlocked, the ruins will be permanently open, accessible via teleportation points until you complete a full temple challenge.

Vaal Temple Core Mechanics

Central Area

Upon entering Vaal Temple, you'll arrive at a safe starting area. This area includes:

• A teleportation point;
• Your storage;
• Temple Console (the core system for dungeon creation).

Temple Console is the most important. All dungeon planning, upgrades, and saving are done through it. Use Temple Console to create your own dungeons.

Layout Rules

In Temple Console, you'll see a grid map. You can place room tiles connected by corridors on the map. These tiles represent combat, reward, boss, and support spaces. When building your map, make sure to connect the different rooms in a logical and reasonable way, as you'll later need to enter your own dungeon and explore it independently.

Key Layout Rules:

• Rooms must be connected by effective corridors to avoid dead ends;
• Paths only need to lead to rooms;
• Routes must be continuous. You can plan a main path leading to the boss room first and then expand from there.

Room Types

Each room in the temple is different, and the types of items dropped will also vary, including equipment, POE 2 currency and certain rare items. As you progress through the story and complete Vaal Temple challenges, you'll gradually unlock more powerful room sections. Each room also has a corresponding card that clearly shows the enemy type, reward category, and special mechanics or dangers.

The specific rooms are as follows:

• Commander's Chamber
• Sealed Vault
• Bronzeworks
• Workshop
• Dynamo
• Prosthetic Research
• Thaumaturge's Laboratory
• Chamber of Souls
• Guardhouse
• Spymaster's Study
• Surgeon's Ward
• Depot
• Ancient Reliquary Vault
• Kishara's Vault
• Jiquani's Vault
• Extraction Chamber

Room Upgrades

As the challenge progresses, you can upgrade rooms. By fulfilling the conditions specified on the room card, you can increase the loot drops within, but the potential danger level will also increase.

If the room outline on the panel glows green when you place a room, it means that when you confirm its placement, one of the adjacent rooms will be upgraded.

Therefore, you should pay attention to balancing the challenge difficulty of each room. Over-upgrading in the early stages will make later challenges increasingly difficult.

Challenging Vaal Temple

After completing the dungeon layout, select "Run Temple" from Temple Console to start the challenge. Before entering, remember to bring your best gear, empty your inventory, and prepare Portal Scrolls.

There will be some resources and regular monsters in the corridors. Your map will mark the rooms you named during setup; these are your main objectives. You must clear all rooms to successfully complete Vaal Temple challenge.

Once you enter a room, the door will automatically lock until you fulfill the room's requirements, such as killing all enemies and opening the chest. If you are killed or teleported away for any reason, you will need to re-enter from the temple entrance, so be sure to unlock available checkpoints to reduce travel time.

You will need to fight your way through, searching for powerful equipment and weapons. The final objective is the boss room at the far end of the map, where the powerful boss Atziri resides-the strongest boss in the entire dungeon. Defeating her will reward you with many unique items, such as Atziri's Contempt, Atziri's Rule, or Vaal Siphoner.

Completing all of the above will complete Vaal Ruins. If you wish to challenge it again, you will need to clear six Vaal Beacons before you can re-enter.

Vaal Temple Decay Management

After completing your exploration of Vaal Temple, you need to use Temple Console to close the temple and save your progress. This is necessary after completing each new map, allowing you to continue your exploration the next time you return.

Each time you return to Ruins, you will find your temple Decay and destroyed, with some rooms randomly becoming corrupted, unstable, or even inaccessible. This can ruin your carefully crafted dungeon map, so you need to collect Vaal Medallions dropped by defeating bosses in different rooms. These medallions not only provide substantial rewards but also protect rooms from Decay.

Vaal Temple in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 is a highly replayable dungeon mechanic, catering to whether you're seeking rare items and gear, testing your character build, or challenging Atziri.

Don't be afraid of death, create your own Vaal Temple, and bravely launch your attack!

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been out for a while now. For the first three days after release, players could enjoy the game for free, and everyone was racing to complete it, hoping to unlock all the new content during those days.

Most players have already experienced all the new content. If you find the later content a bit repetitive, perhaps you can try some characters and builds you haven't used before to give the game a fresh feel.

The most popular features of Path of Exile 2 are the various classes and different builds. The diversity of choices allows players to experience different ways of playing the same game content. In particular, Druid class, which was added in patch 0.4.0, is the most popular class, and most players are trying to use it to complete the game.

Druid is a hybrid intelligence class that combines spell-casting abilities with shapeshifting combat. It can be a ranged mage or transform into a beast for melee attacks. Among its many forms, Wolf Druid stands out for its swift frost melee capabilities, freezing hordes of enemies before tearing them to shreds with lightning speed.

Next, I'll teach you how to build a high-damage Wolf Druid in PoE 2.

Build Overview

Druid's wolf form sacrifices some survivability, prioritizing speed and mana consumption over its more tank-oriented bear form. Its extremely high burst damage allows Wolf Druid to quickly eliminate opponents in melee combat.

Advantages:

• Extremely high movement and attack speed;
• Powerful crowd control;
• Extremely high frost burst damage.

Disadvantages:

• Consumes more mana than other Druid forms;
• Relatively low tankiness.

Why Choose Wolf Druid?

Early in The Last of the Druids campaign, Druid gains an Animal Talisman, which allows it to switch between bear and wolf forms.

• Bear Form: Slower, tankier, higher base damage;
• Wolf Form: Agile, lower base damage, but higher attack frequency.

If you prefer fast-paced hacking, freezing enemies, and aggressive offense, Wolf Druid is the best choice. Its core gameplay revolves around a simple yet deadly combat cycle.

You can use Lunar Assault to freeze enemies (single-target or area-of-effect), then quickly unleash melee attacks to shatter the frozen enemy. Simultaneously, your human form can apply frost powers and debuffs, cycling through this process until you transform into a wolf and charge into battle to finish the fight.

Best Ascendancy

While Druid has two Ascendancy classes to choose from, Oracle is the best option for Wolf Druid.

This provides a stable attack damage bonus, synergizes well with fast-attack skills for high damage output, and combined with the passive skill bonuses from Passives Tree and Foresight power of Oracle, Wolf Druid gains a significant advantage in combat.

Build Tips

Skill Setup And Corresponding Support Gems

Human Form

• Frost Bomb: Magnified Area, Spell Cascade, Deep Freeze;
• Thunderstorm: Magnified Area, Prolonged Duration;
• Herald of Ice: Magnified Area, Deep Freeze;
• Overwhelming Presence: Precision.

Wolf Form

• Shred: Cold Attunement, Rage, Rapid Attacks;
• Lunar Assault: Ice Bite, Elemental Armament, Rapid Attacks;
• Cross-Slash: Close Combat, Execute, Magnified Area;
• Pounce: Freezing Mark, Mark for Death, Mark of Siphoning.

Unlike Bear Druid in Path of Exile 2, the wolf form build focuses more on speed and frost power. While the wolf's damage isn't as high, its fast attack speed and numerous attacks compensate for this.

The human form is best suited for ranged spell attacks and can be used before entering combat. Leave the melee combat to Wolf Druid in the later stages of the battle.

Passive Tree Optimization Choices

Wolf Druid's build emphasizes a balanced combination of physical and elemental damage, so you can't focus solely on one. Increasing physical attack will help with the wolf form's finishing move, while increasing spell power or speed will make you more powerful and agile in combat.

Besides maximizing spell and physical attack, we also need to pay attention to defensive and HP regeneration bonuses. Increasing your armor thickness is also important, and you should stack elemental shields as much as possible, as this is Wolf Druid's primary defensive method.

In other words, if you see terms like melee attack speed, increased frost damage, freeze, and elemental damage in Passive Tree, prioritize unlocking them.

Gear Selection

Regardless of which Druid form you choose in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, you'll obtain many powerful staves as your weapons. For example, Taryn's Shiver Gelid Staff and The Whispering Ice Permafrost Staff are both well-suited for Wolf Druids. Each staff offers different abilities and attribute bonuses, so careful comparison is essential.

In addition, don't forget to upgrade your Animal Talisman. You can obtain higher-level Talismans by defeating certain monsters or by getting them at Currency Exchange using PoE 2 currency, ensuring deals significant damage.

Meanwhile, you can further enhance your weapon's damage output by socketing runes into it. With luck, you might even gain additional buffs or elemental abilities.

Overall, the ultimate goal of all your gear is to increase your attack power, speed, and HP. The focus should be on upgrading melee capabilities and spell damage, as Wolf Druids rely on a combination of these to unleash their full potential in combat. Therefore, any trinket that increases Frost Power and Attack Power is a good choice.

The above is the key information for Wolf Druid build in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0. If you prefer a smooth combat style and high-speed burst damage, you should definitely try this build.

If you want to quickly complete Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 during the free weekend, a proper character build is essential.

A good character build can help you establish a significant advantage at the start, accumulating sufficient gear and Path of Exile 2 currency. Below, I'll introduce a Lich build perfectly suited for the early game, including all the detailed information you need.

Skills

Main Skills

To master Lich, you must understand her most effective skill combo: Essence Drain + Contagion.

Essence Drain is a Projectile Spell that deals continuous Chaos damage to hit enemies; Contagion is an Area of Effect Spell that distributes all Chaos damage over time as a debuff to nearby enemies.

This combo can help you clear large areas of enemies. It's not only surprisingly effective in the early stages of PoE 2, but you'll also use it throughout the game, including the late game.

Late Game Skills

In the late game, we need to unlock other skills, namely Dark Effigy and Sigil of Power. Dark Effigy, as a totem, fires Chaos Projectiles at enemies with Chaos buff, dealing extra damage. Sigil of Power generates a Sigil on the ground; when you and your teammates are within its range, you gain a powerful spell damage buff.

This combo greatly maximizes our damage output, helping us fight the final boss in the late game.

How To Unlock Basic Skills?

When you choose the Witch class at the start, our basic setup is relatively easy to obtain. Initially, we need to survive using health, Energy Shield, and strong positioning. Successfully killing some regular monsters or completing quests will earn you Uncut Skill Gems, which can be used to unlock the skills we want.

First, we should unlock Unearth skill, a directional area-of-effect skill that deals damage and creates temporary skeletal structures (essentially your Minion) if it passes over a corpse.

After unlocking useful skills, we can farm higher-level gems. Once we obtain the level 3 Uncut Skill Gem, we can unlock Essence Drain Gem. Simply insert the skill gem into our skill bar to use the corresponding skill in combat.

Support Skill Gems

Level 1

Our first support skill doesn't need to be powerful; a basic one will suffice. For Essence Drain, we can choose Swift Affliction. Although it shortens the duration of Essence Drain's damage on enemies, it increases continuous non-elemental damage, significantly boosting our single-target damage.

Our second support skill targets Contagion: Magnified Area, which improves the efficiency of Contagion skills.

These two support skills are essential. For the remaining slots, we can choose Rapid Casting, Unleash, or Zenith I. The first two gems also support Contagion, greatly improving our monster-clearing efficiency. Zenith supports Essence Drain, increasing our damage by 30%.

However, this skill is relatively difficult to use, requiring constant mana maintenance, so we rarely use it. If you feel you can maintain mana for a long time, then you can use Zenith.

Level 2

When we feel that Tier 1 skill support is no longer sufficient to meet our damage needs in the game, you can equip Tier 2 skill gems.

We can prioritize using Considered Casting, which increases spell damage by approximately 30%. The downside is sacrificing casting speed. If you enjoy the feeling of high damage output, you can prioritize Considered Casting.

If you feel your damage is already sufficient, you can equip Chain Support Gems to expand our skill range, thereby increasing our monster-clearing speed.

In addition, the following options are available:

• Zenith
• Rapid Casting

Equipment Stats

Core Equipment

As a witch, the most important weapon is Wand, which requires Intelligence to use. Unlike traditional weapons, it doesn't deal direct damage; instead, it inflicts damage through spells.

If you can find a wand in Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 that grants +1 to spell skill level, that would be ideal, as it's crucial for increasing damage. The wand should ideally include the following attributes:

• + Chaos Skill Levels;
• Spell Damage;
• Chaos Damage.

Others

If possible, you should also acquire some good rings or other items that increase casting speed, such as: Sapphire Ring, Amethyst Ring, Lunar Amulet, etc. For boots, we only need to focus on movement speed; other attributes are not important.

In other words, for other equipment, we mainly need to focus on these key attributes:

• Spell Damage;
• Chaos Damage;
• Cast Speed.

Chaos Lich Ascendancy Nodes

• Node 1: Soulless Form. This node fixes your mana, making management very simple and also making your second ascendancy choice easier to manage;
• Node 2: Eternal Life. Increases your tankiness;
• Node 3: Eldritch Empowerment. Increases energy damage by 30% when sacrificing Energy Shield.

The main choices are these three. Of course, you can also choose Rupture the Soul, which can improve our monster-clearing speed. Crystalline Phylactery is also a good choice, providing buffs to the character while also dealing damage to enemies.

All of these mechanisms work together to make this Chaos Lich build very powerful and expandable. You can use it in Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 to create distance between yourself and other players from the start. Good luck with your new league start!