PoE 3.28 Mirage update will arrive in early March. Judging from the official announcement, a new mechanic may be reworked.

Besides this mechanic, there are still some things worth noting, such as Breach mechanic, loot drops, and class balance. Specific details will be announced on February 26th. Let's predict which items might be nerfed or buffed.

Nerf Predictions

Genesis Treea

The highlight of PoE 3.27 league, the remastered Breach, will be integrated into the core game in Path of Exile 3.28. However, it's unlikely to be fully retained in 3.28 and will be somewhat nerfed.

The official announcement mentions that players can choose to focus on controlling which specific types of rift mechanics appear on their maps.

It's foreseeable that Grafts will not return with the rifts being integrated into the core game, but Genesis Tree will remain. According to the announcement, the only thing this tree can no longer do is create Grafts. In other words, you can still use its branches to craft gear, unique items, and PoE currency.

This is undoubtedly a significant nerf, as Genesis Tree for crafting gear and items through Provisioning Wombgifts is extremely efficient at producing top-tier gear. So much so that in patch 3.27, it largely rendered early-game ground drops worthless.

In the late game, it often drastically diminished the value of other crafting methods, as you could essentially skip many crafting steps because the tree frequently rolled very high-tier affixes, often multiple affixes simultaneously.

Furthermore, the game's announcements made no mention of Graft Blood. We currently don't know how Genesis Tree will function; it might become a bind-on-pickup item, or it might be removed altogether. In short, the developers may reduce the number of times you can craft through Genesis Tree, thereby weakening the number of top-tier items it produces.

In any case, we can predict that Genesis Tree in patch 3.28 will be significantly weaker than in patch 3.27, to prevent its coreification from diminishing other existing game systems.

Kinetic Blast

Kinetic Blast and its variant, Kinetic Blast of Clustering, are among the most likely skills to be nerfed in Patch 3.28.

Kinetic Blast was already one of the best-performing skills in Path of Exile 3.26 League. By the end of that league, 8% of level 95 and above characters in Softcore Trading Zone were using Kinetic Blast. Kinetic Blast not only survived PoE 3.27 but remained powerful. Its strength carried over from one league to the next.

Kinetic Blast of Clustering was far less popular than the base version of Kinetic Blast in 3.26 League. However, it was buffed, gaining approximately a 17% damage increase, making it the most used skill in Softcore Trading Zone in PoE 3.27. Both are likely to receive numerical adjustments.

Foulborn Hand of Thought and Motion

While the official announcement didn't mention Foulborn items, the mention of Grafts not returning suggests they might be incorporated into core game content.

If Foulborn items are indeed integrated into core content as expected, then Foulborn Hand of Thought and Motion is the top build that needs adjustment. This item, with its additional hit chance per point of Intelligence Foulborn affix, made it one of the strongest builds in patch 3.27.

Builds utilizing this item could easily deal millions or even billions of damage per second. It will either receive a significant nerf or have this affix replaced in patch 3.28 and beyond.

Buffs Predictions

Loot Drops

The loot situation in patch 3.27 was quite poor. Several targeted nerfs to endgame farming strategies, coupled with the presence of Breach Walls in approximately half of the maps, made the experience in these areas of Keeper of the Flame league unpleasant. Another issue is the scarcity of basic loot drops; even regular monsters seem to drop less.

However, this problem has existed for a long time, not just in version 3.27. Players complained about it as early as PoE 3.26. Considering the official announcement of plans for significant changes to farming strategies in 3.28, we can expect to see major improvements in this area when the version goes live.

Tier 17 Maps

In short, the T17 maps didn't turn out the way the developers envisioned. They wanted them to be a stepping stone from regular pinnacle bosses to Uber pinnacle bosses. Instead, they replaced the T16 maps, becoming part of some of the most efficient endgame farming content.

This stems from several changes in version 3.24 that added extra rewards to the T17 maps, such as increased item quantity, rarity, and currency drops through affix bonuses.

Furthermore, the T17 maps, due to their extremely demanding map affixes, resulted in some of the most restrictive gameplay in the game's history. This has allowed a few Ascendancy classes and builds to dominate for several consecutive leagues, as they can ignore certain negative affixes.

The developers acknowledged the poor state of the T17 map, but it wasn't discussed in depth until the 3.27 Q&A, suggesting changes to the T17 map may come in 3.28.

Ascendancy Classes

In the official announcement, Scion will be reworked in 3.28, potentially referencing Scavenger Ascendancy from Legacy of Phrecia event. This may be just the first step; the developers may further leverage Legacy of Phrecia to revamp unpopular Ascendancy classes.

Guardian has consistently been one of the least popular Ascendancy classes for several leagues. In PoE 3.27 softcore trade league, Guardian had the lowest usage rate, accounting for only 0.6% of level 95 and above characters.

Another example is Saboteur, which faces the same problem as Guardian. It has some excellent talent points that can be reasonably integrated into a variety of different builds, but other options are too niche. They all need some improvements, which may arrive in PoE 3.28.

These are our predictions for Path of Exile 3.28 Mirage buffs and nerfs. The full reveal and subsequent patch notes are just around the corner; let's wait together.

With Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 nearing its end, the conclusion of Path of Exile Keepers of the Flame league is also approaching. Therefore, amidst player anticipation and speculation, the release date for 3.28 league has finally been announced!

Below, we will introduce the schedule for 3.28 league launch and further speculate on what new content and modifications it might bring to Path of Exile.

When will Path of Exile 3.28 launch?

According to the official announcement, the league will launch at 11:00 AM Pacific Time on March 6th. Related live streams and detailed announcements will begin at 11:00 AM on February 26th.

However, the official team will probably release additional teasers before the 26th to reveal some new information, and some players in the game community may also have some advance rumors.

It's worth noting that the current 3.27 League doesn't end immediately before 3.28; it will end at 1 PM Pacific Time on March 2nd, while Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 will end on February 19th.

Therefore, if you have any unfinished tasks or challenges, be sure to complete them before the league/event ends to avoid missing out on easily earned PoE currency.

Possible new content

Based on previous speculations, 3.28 League will probably feature a new main story and related quests centered around the character Saresh, the Weeping Black, and he might even be the new final boss!

This speculation stems from the game studio's recent recruitment of voice actors for this character, who hasn't appeared much in past storylines. This is clearly an important and definite clue.

Aside from a few background descriptions from the old Metamorph Scarabs, there's almost no information about this character in the game; in fact, those scarabs are no longer in the game.

These background descriptions summarize Saresh's ordeal, from being abandoned by his tribe to being taken in by Order of the Djinn, until his increasingly outrageous behavior led to his expulsion and excommunication from the order, and finally, his death at the hands of Garukhan.

In addition, there are two unique items added to the game in League 3.26 and 3.27 respectively: Dark Monarch and Hallowed Monarch, whose background descriptions also mention Saresh.

The endgame issue may be resolved

As a core part of the game, endgames are constantly being optimized to meet the game's development and balance needs, as well as the increasingly discerning tastes of players.

Currently, the biggest endgame issue lies primarily in Tier 17 maps. Their initial design goal was to fill the gap between regular pinnacle bosses and Uber bosses, using randomly generated affixes to determine map difficulty, thus providing a challenge.

Furthermore, defeating bosses in these maps yields fragments, which can be used to unlock more Uber bosses.

Before this mechanism was introduced, unlocking the ultimate boss simply required allocating the corresponding keystone perk on the map perk tree. The problem with this early solution was the huge difficulty gap between pinnacle bosses and Uber bosses.

Furthermore, this solution required using pinnacle fragments with allocated keystone perks to challenge Uber bosses. This meant that these fragments were wasted if you didn't challenge the Uber versions of these bosses.

Fortunately, the addition of Tier 17 maps and some changes solved this old problem by completely separating pinnacle bosses from their corresponding Uber bosses. However, new problems quickly arose.

In the early stages of League 3.24, Tier 17 maps were unmodifiable. So, if you found a map with affixes particularly unfavorable to your build, and you didn't have Scarab of Bisection, you were out of luck.

Based on this, you could either change your playstyle or trade the map. Although some patches were released in League 3.24 to address this, the effect was very limited.

Why will it be changed in 3.28?

Since this issue has plagued players and developers for nearly two years, you might wonder why it might be completely resolved in 3.28 league update.

This is mainly because the development team provided a fairly detailed response to this issue in Q&A for 3.27 when the league was released.

They clearly acknowledged the problems with Tier 17 map and stated that they were working hard to redesign the mechanism until the gap between Pinnacle bosses and Uber bosses could be reasonably resolved.

To do this, the design of Tier 17 maps needs to be re-examined, clarifying its purpose: the most rewarding content should not become a way to challenge Uber bosses.

In fact, the original design purpose of Tier 17 map was not to replace Tier 16 map as a final farming method, but rather it naturally evolved into its current form after adding extra drop rewards for these exclusive affixes.

Most importantly, the developers mentioned that they want to make significant changes to Tier 17 gear and indicated that adjustments in this area are almost inevitable in 3.28 league.

Of course, the developers' words are not always entirely reliable, as previous Q&A sessions have corroborated this point. Because the actual situation in the game is constantly changing, this will affect the scope and content of updates.

However, we still hope that this crucial endgame issue will be resolved at least this year. This would not only represent a milestone in the development of Path of Exile but also be one of the best ways to celebrate if a full version of the second game is released.

That concludes our overview of the current information regarding PoE 3.28 league and our predictions for any new changes it might bring. But your immediate priority should be completing all the remaining 3.27 tasks! Hurry up!

Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 is ending in a week. If you've been playing Path of Exile, have you mastered enough techniques for farming various currencies in this event? After all, this should be the foundation for continuously strengthening your character.

Of all currencies, Mirror of Kalandra, while not the most commonly used, is the rarest. So rare that some players even convert excess Divine Orbs into Mirrors for value storage when they reach their storage limit.

Based on this, this article will introduce how to farm Mirror of Kalandra faster in a short time during Legacy of Phrecia using the essences and idols.

Mirror of Kalandra introduction

As you know, Path of Exile currency system includes many specific types. While serving a trading function, they also have unique mechanisms, such as enhancing gear rarity or modifying gear affixes. Mirror of Kalandra is no exception.

Players typically refer to PoE Mirror of Kalandra as Mirror. Its function is to create an undamaged copy of an item or map. The created mirrored item cannot be modified or mirrored again, helping to maintain the integrity of the original.

Due to its high rarity, most players don't directly utilize Mirror's inherent function, but instead save it to exchange for many more versatile orbs.

Theoretically, this item can drop in any scenario, but the drop rate is extremely low. Alternatively, you can obtain it through special recipes, such as crafting a Mirror Shard or using Void divination card.

What is essence?

Essence is a currency item in Path of Exile, but it only functions as crafting. It can upgrade normal rarity gear to rare, while ensuring that an item rolls a fixed affix.

An essence actually consists of a prefix and a suffix, and essences can be further categorized. The type determines which guaranteed affixes it can grant to the gear, while the level determines the magnitude of the bonuses from these affixes.

During your exploration, you'll randomly encounter monsters trapped in essence monoliths in most areas. Clicking on an essence monolith three times will release the monster; defeating it will yield the dropped essence.

Some special, higher-tier essences only exist in higher tiers, meaning that as your character's abilities improve, you can obtain more and rarer essences.

It's worth noting that sometimes imprisoned monsters are enhanced by relevant modifiers, such as granting them increased durability or reducing the damage they take. Therefore, be careful in combat.

Based on this, essence types include natural essences and corrupted essences. The former has seven tiers, each with a prefix; the latter has only a single tier.

Corrupted essences do not appear in essence monoliths. Instead, you must first corrupt the essence monoliths with a Vaal Orb, then release and defeat the monster.

Idols with essence affixes

Idols are a Legacy of Phrecia-specific mechanic; they can be placed on the map to add modifiers to the map in a way similar to a passive skill. Adding essences to the idols on this basis will allow you to achieve more desirable mod effects.

Next, you need to collect as many essences as possible on the map, ensuring each essence reaches level one, or nearly level one. Then, corrupt some essences to make them more valuable.

For this, we recommend corrupting Essence of Misery, Essence of Envy, Essence of Dread, and Essence of Scorn. To increase the conversion rate, you'll also need to use Scarab of Stability.

Corrupting essences may cause them to disappear immediately, or it may increase their level or create new essences. If you prefer, you can use Essence Scarab instead of Scarab of Stability to increase the chance of essence drops on the map.

However, this will reduce the chance of converting ordinary essences into expensive ones, so the first strategy is better, as having more valuable essences reduces the time consumed on the map.

Map layout and farming

Essence levels increase with area levels. The higher the map level, the more essence you obtain, and due to the idol bonus, you eventually won't need to farm the highest-level map.

Furthermore, Essence Scarab automatically increases the level by one. The ideal map for this is Dunes; you only need two Voidstones, and if you have more, the level will be higher.

If your build can handle it and you can kill them quickly enough, you can use four Voidstones and challenge Dunes in Tier 16. However, there aren't many additional benefits; the only difference is that you get Conquest Idols.

The advantage of Dunes map is its excellent map layout. If you want to maintain your map count by repeatedly farming Dunes, you can do so as long as Dunes is available.

If you run out of Dunes, Canyon or Coves maps are also viable options, and whether you farm only one depends on your personal needs. This way, you can always maintain a sufficient number of maps.

Additionally, it's best to kill the map bosses as much as possible to extend map availability, as they also drop more loot than any other monster. Generally, bosses in Dunes map are relatively easy to deal with, and defeating them won't waste too much time.

Character and build setup

Based on the map configuration and difficulty above, you don't need to excessively stack attributes to pursue DPS or tankiness, but sufficient speed and a certain amount of damage are indeed essential, as essence monsters can sometimes be very tanky.

If you are a ranged class, your DPS requirements will be lower due to your ability to attack from a distance. If you are a melee class, you will need higher DPS to avoid prolonged close-range attacks on monsters.

Summary

In essence, this article introduced how to maximize farming speed by combining essence and idols while maintaining the easiest possible approach, thereby increasing your chances of obtaining Mirror of Kalandra.

While these methods can alleviate some pressure, they still require a significant time investment, as obtaining Mirrors is indeed more challenging than other currencies.

That concludes this article. We hope it inspires new ideas for playing Legacy of Phrecia event, unlocking more fun!

While Path of Exile 2's complexity doesn't yet rival the first game, it's already quite overwhelming for many new players, to where even with consistent play, there are mechanics you might have overlooked.

Since April of last year, PoE 2 has been continuously expanded with the release of more patches. On one hand, this means you have new skills to play with; on the other hand, it also means you have less time to explore classic hidden mechanics that can enhance your gameplay.

Therefore, this patch will introduce the potential uses and benefits of the penetration mechanic, allowing you to gain more advantages during the remaining Patch 0.4.0.

What is penetration?

In Path of Exile 2, this mechanic allows your attacks to deal hit damage that ignores the target's resistances and penetrates the enemy by a certain amount. Note that damage over time is not affected by penetration.

Penetration is typically tied to a specific resistance type, but not always to a single type of damage.

Sometimes it stacks with other damage types to create elemental penetration, allowing hits with elemental properties like fire or frost to ignore the target's corresponding resistance.

Interestingly, penetration also existed in PoE 1, but it worked differently. In the first game, you could use negative resistance penetration to multiply damage, but Path of Exile 2 doesn't allow this.

Based on the effectiveness of elemental penetration, many players are accustomed to combining the two. However, this often leads to confusion when maximizing damage output.

Other similar mechanisms

Besides penetration, there are two other attack methods in the game that can be used to counter enemy resistances: reduction and inversion.

Theoretically, there are also ignoring resistances, but this function is rather obscure and not very practical, so we won't discuss it further.

The most common source of the inversion effect is Lineage Support Gem Rakiata's Flow, which reads the enemy's resistance value and then inverts it to deal damage, regardless of whether the resistance value is positive or negative.

Common misconceptions about penetration

After Rakiata's Flow appeared in the game, the complex interrelationships between the three resistance mechanics led to serious misconceptions when trying to maximize their build effects.

This not only wastes damage output but also prevents other special buffs or item effects from being fully utilized. Over time, you might mistakenly believe these mechanics are useless and abandon them, especially penetration.

The main reason for this misconception is that enemy elemental resistance modifiers operate in a strict order, and their effects vary drastically when combined with other mechanics.

Generally, your primary goal in enhancing a character through a mechanic is to increase effective DPS, which includes not only the amount of damage you deal but also the debuffs you apply to enemies and their damage mitigation abilities.

The variables involved in these processes are almost endless, easily leading to misunderstandings and ultimately causing you to abandon a penetration-based resistance build.

While seeking help from other mechanics is possible, it can cause you to miss out on additional benefits that should be gained through penetration, thus impacting your PoE 2 currency farming efficiency.

How to properly uitilize penetration?

When dealing damage to monsters using resistance-related mechanics, the game checks resistance status in a strict order, with penetration at the very end of the calculation chain.

Before that, the various elemental resistance reduction effects applied to the monster take effect, altering the enemy's total resistance value. Then, the inversion checks the monster's real-time resistances and reverses their values.

Regardless of the fluctuations in the first two phases, the final penetration effect doesn't change the monster's status; it only affects your current attack.

However, sources of global penetration, such as the corruption enchantment on gloves, are generally ignored and are significantly oversupplied in the market, leading you to mistakenly believe that penetration negatively impacts your primary skills.

Even with a single type of penetration, if you're playing an elemental damage build, most builds only require a few talent points, perhaps a support gem and one or two jewel prefixes, to reach the penetration cap for their primary damage type.

Another key gear is Leopold's Applause. This unique glove allows your attacks to penetrate all elemental resistances by 10%, and its special affix effect is currently the only way in the game to penetrate resistances below 0%.

Finally, it's worth emphasizing Rakiata's Flow again. While this Lineage gem can only be used once per skill, if your attack hits a target and deals normal damage, the actual damage will be higher after resistance calculation.

Furthermore, Rakiata's Flow can reverse all elemental resistances, meaning you can reap all elemental damage bonuses from rings, gloves, and other gear without worrying about resistances.

However, when socketing Rakiata's Flow into your main damage skill gem and using it, you should avoid any means of reducing elemental resistances, because they will debuff the way that you can hit monsters.

In short, to properly utilize penetration to enhance your builds and characters, you need a deep understanding of the mechanics of Path of Exile 2 and be willing to invest time calculating your damage output.

Frankly, this is a hard work that only hardcore gamers are willing to undertake, but if your goal isn't just to play casually, but to become a top player in every league, then mastering this knowledge is essential.

That concludes this article. Whether you found it helpful or not, thank you for reading!

The release of Path of Exile 2 The Last of the Druids patch has sparked a new wave of interest among players, because this patch introduced the new Druid class and its two Ascendancies.

However, to maintain balance in the game's combat environment, the new Ascendancies are not currently the dominant class in the leagues. Some established classes, such as Blood Mage, remain the top choices for top players.

The awkward part is that, with Patch 0.4.0 halfway through, while many builds based on the new Ascendancies have emerged, they are still slightly weaker - when it comes to the strongest Ascendanancy class, you might still think of Blood Mage first.

Based on this, we will analyze why Blood Mage has remained so powerful and whether this Ascendanancy needs to be nerfed.

Blood Mage current status

As a class that existed when PoE 2 was first released, Blood Mage's Ascendancy mechanic involves casting blood magic spells while simultaneously draining enemy life to gain more power.

Based on this, Blood Mage is a very powerful spellcaster, and it synergizes perfectly with the currently popular critical strike casting mechanic in the game.

In the early days of Fate of the Vaal, Blood Mage was also a competitor to Pathfinder, Shaman, and Oracle, but as the league progressed, Blood Mage's ranking rose steadily.

In fact, it was equally powerful and popular in the previous league, though slightly less so than Deadeye, mainly because Temple of Atziri mechanic in Patch 0.4.0 is more suitable for Blood Mage.

In short, Blood Mage currently delivers satisfactory results whether clearing temples in league mechanics or killing bosses for loot in high-tier maps.

The evolution of Blood Mage

It must be acknowledged that Blood Mage was strong from the start, and it has been buffed in almost every subsequent version, which is quite rare for Path of Exile 2, which strives for balance.

For example, initially, one of its skills, Blood Barbs, only added an extra 10% damage, but now the bleed effect it applies to cursed targets is amplified, which is why offensive Blood Mage exists and is so powerful.

It's worth noting that Blood Mage used to have a feature that allowed your critical hits to ignore monster armor. However, this effect was changed in Patch 0.3.0.

Now, its effect is that for every 4% of health consumed, you gain 1 stack of Life Blink, and potions restore 50% of that health. Additionally, each stack of Life Blink deals extra physical damage.

This modified skill is actually more useful than before because you can use potions to enhance its effect; the only problem is that its cap may be lowered.

The real reasons Blood Mage is so powerful

While synergy with the current league mechanics is important, the true determinant of a class or Ascendancy's strength lies in its inherent skills and talents.

For Blood Mage, the most noteworthy is Sunder the Flesh, which grants a 15% base spell critical strike chance. As you know, critical strike chance is a crucial element in PoE 2, with most builds' late-game damage output depending on it.

Therefore, Sunder the Flesh's effect means it makes many spells more useful, amplifying spell power in combat to levels unmatched by other classes.

Another major reason Blood Mage stands out is its ability to absorb spell damage. If you don't play this Ascendancy, achieving the same effect in-game requires obtaining Covenant Altar Robe.

The tricky part is that this gear is difficult to obtain as a drop, and even through trading, it requires a significant number of orbs. More importantly, it occupies your chest armor slot, depriving you of a defensive option.

Therefore, while Covenant Altar Robe grants additional life remnants and spell power boosts, this comes at the consumption of significant survivability. Comparatively, playing Blood Mage directly is a better choice.

Furthermore, most spellcasters in the game frequently face mana shortages, making mana consumption increasingly difficult to meet as you level up spells, requiring numerous steps to reach the target.

However, Blood Mage can directly choose Blood Magic, then drain life to not only maintain mana but also improve survivability.

Should Blood Mage be nerfed?

Considering all these factors, it's clear that Blood Mage is an extremely versatile class, excelling not only in offensive skills but also in spell-casting, a feat unmatched by other similar classes.

So the question arises: to maintain class balance, should Blood Mage be nerfed? Or is this Ascendancy's apparent strength primarily due to the current weakness of other classes?

Based on current community opinion, the latter view is generally more favored. It's normal for any class to fit well with currently popular gameplay styles; if other classes can't, it's their own fault.

In other words, Blood Mage's perceived strength is actually the level that Ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 2 should reach. What the developers really need to do is strengthen other classes and achieve a balance between mana consumption and exponential skill scaling.

Currently, there are still about two months until Patch 0.5.0, and PoE 2 is planned to release its full version of this year. Therefore, the balance issues between Ascendancy classes should be resolved as soon as possible to avoid hindering the game's further development.

Fate of the Vaal league is already halfway through. Even if your interest has waned, Atziri's Temple, which it unlocks, may become unplayable after Patch 0.4.0, so it's still worth experiencing while you can.

This mechanic was plagued by bugs shortly after its release, leading to player complaints. The development team quickly released several hotfixes to maintain order and temporarily resolve the crisis.

To fully experience Atziri's Temple, Vaal Crystals are essential; they are the foundation for unlocking and building temple chains. So, after several modifications, how can we improve the farming efficiency of these crystals at this stage? We'll explain.

Atziri's Temple gameplay quick guide

As a limited-time league mechanic during patch 0.4.0, Atziri's Temple is a dynamic endgame dungeon that you build yourself.

First, you need to collect enough Vaal Crystals to unlock the temple. Afterward, each room you clear allows you to place up to six more rooms within the grid until you create a continuous path leading to the final boss, Atziri.

During this process, you may encounter the mid-level boss, Architect. Fighting him can cause temple instability, destroying some of your placed rooms. This can occasionally happen in normal levels as well.

Therefore, to prevent your high-value rooms from being destroyed, you can use locks to protect specific sections of the path, avoiding wasting your previous efforts.

How to obtain Vaal Crystals?

While exploring the temple, Vaal Beacons will appear in the in-game zones. You can find them by marking them with triangle icons on the mini-map. Corrupted monsters will spawn around the beacons; defeating them will light up the icon and grant you a crystal.

Another method is to farm maps, using Tier 15 or higher Waystones. By adding more mods to the map, you can ensure you get 2-3 crystals each time you complete a map.

It's important to note that regardless of the method you choose, the content you're running must be close to your character's level. If your level is significantly higher than the area's, Vaal Crystals will not drop.

How to improve farming efficiency?

Obviously, the key to improving Vaal Crystal farming efficiency lies in combat efficiency. The more monsters you kill/the more map you clear, the faster you'll acquire more crystals.

Increasing your character's light radius

Light radius is a general attribute for PoE 2 characters. Its main function is to illuminate your surroundings in darker areas, while also increasing the radius at which terrain and points of interest appear on the mini-map.

If you increase this attribute, when you search for Vaal Beacons, the relevant icons will appear on the mini-map faster, allowing you to spot and eliminate nearby enemies sooner.

By default, light radius is tied to your current maximum health percentage. Some special passive abilities may also make it based on an energy shield later in the game. This is particularly useful if you're playing low-health builds.

It's worth noting that this attribute is often listed as a single affix on the gear along with accuracy, meaning you might receive an increased aura radius as a bonus while improving your hit rate.

Based on this, you can try enchanting your amulets with passive skills that increase aura radius, such as Chakra of Sight or Illuminated Crown. Alternatively, equip Prismatic Ring, whose aura radius affix value might refresh to over 35.

Besides gear, some passive tree nodes also have similar effects. So you could replace gear with talent points later if you wanted, but it would be quite cumbersome.

Modifying mini-map settings

In addition to increasing the light radius, you can also increase the efficiency of finding Vaal Beacons by modifying other mini-map display settings. This includes adjusting the mini-map zoom, scenery transparency, and map transparency.

Increasing speed

This refers not only to increasing your character's movement speed but also the cooldown recovery speed of the blink ability. Combining both will make everything incredibly fast; with good luck, you could even get over 50 crystals in an hour.

If you're a spellcaster, movement speed is especially important, and increased casting speed significantly improves the efficiency of blink. Casting after blink eliminates the slight pause after casting.

Blink is crucial because you might encounter strange terrain while searching for beacons, and detours can be time-consuming; blink directly solves this problem.

Manage your Waystones wisely

As consumables for unlocking endgame maps, Waystones use a prefix/suffix system to determine the rewards and difficulty of specific maps. Higher rarity Waystones grant more modifiers through affixes.

Generally, clearing high-tier maps with high-rarity Waystones will always drop 2 crystals, with a very rare exception of 3 - so your goal is to make these "rare exceptions" occur more frequently.

Through testing, it's generally found that the probability of getting 3 crystals is much higher when the affix is level 8, or even level 6.

Grand Projects on towers

In Path of Exile 2, Grand Projects are a special Precursor Tablet for towers, instantly granting access to all surrounding maps. This means you don't need to traverse or connect multiple maps, significantly increasing clearing efficiency.

Therefore, when you reach a tower, you can immediately run a Grand Project and a map, and complete it. Afterward, save it as a bookmark for easy tracking of your location within Atlas, allowing you to continue without fully completing another map.

Later, as more maps overlap, you can run the next Grand Project immediately after completing one. Not only is the clearing efficiency incredibly high, but you can also selectively run maps.

If you're worried about not collecting enough Vaal Crystals, jump into the game and start farming immediately following our guide! It will definitely give you the ideal temple adventure experience before the league ends! Go try it!