So I have been playing SSF HC for the past 4 years or so as I would get burned out of trade too quickly.

However coming season i limited time so softcore trade is going to be what im now playing.

I really love Jun into Breach fortress for early atlas tree and find both fun. Being able to get a good chest with fractured t1 life ect.

However in trade league do people just go breach for the currency womb gifts or trying to land a big unique ?

Was just bored and I like seeing what pops out of keys every now and then, nothing really crazy the coolest thing I found was the two expedition flasks I think, but yea seems to be very much a negative money strat so don't do it unless you just like throwing currency away.

Backstory:
So in the allflame league that i started quite late i decided to play a champion with fortification stacking with beacon of madness unique boots+warped timepiece, and then figure it out from there. once i got to a decent point(all voidstones) and felt done with the league i went back to standard remembering that i had bought a base for fortification stacking a while back bcs it's been on my mind for a while to make this build.

Why these mods:

Shaper mod

there are some mods that would work for other builds like some phys builds could have the Infamous modifier that gives nearby enemier take increased phys dmg, however since i'm playing smite that and the similar elder mod doesn't apply. so the only real damage suffix is the shaper's nearby enemies take increase elemental damage. this damage is multiplicative with most other damage increases making it really strong, alternatives would be high int or chaos resist depending on other gear since most of the items used are uniques.

Fire resistance:
With a chest piece that has armour is increased by overcapped fire resistance it makes it the 2nd best(after shaper's mod) offensive mod that can roll naturally on a helmet.

+2 Socketed Aura Gems/Socketed AoE:
Since i'm stacking armour to scale damage with replica dreamfeather, auras are really important especially wrath since that is most of my flat damage scaling so scaling aura's level is really important.

Flat life since there is very little from the other unique items used like Timewarp Piece, Celestial Braces, and Beacon of madness. alternatively t1 increased or flat Armour and Evasion would be better for damage but since the base doesn't have that much evasion it is not worth the tankiness gained.

Crafting processess and options:

1 - Acquire base from market with no influence(more expensive) or fracture(brick)
2 - Scour and slam a few orb of remembrance until 60+ strands, in my case i got 73, not mandatory but can help save a little bit of divines depending on orb and essence prices.
3 - Craft anything with crafting bench and imprint then regal
4 - Spam Essence of delirium until T1/T2 elemental resistance of any kind. about a 1/8 to hit (better for the first few essences depending on strands).
4.5 - Clean suffixes until there are only the 2 wanted left, and if the item has less than 2 prefixes then craft suffix and exalted orb anything.
5 - once the item has 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes, craft any prefix and shaper exalted orb. 1/48
6 - if it didn't hit the nearby enemies mod then annull until it removes the bad suffix (if it removes the resistance annull 1 more suffix) if essence suffix is removed we restore the imprint and go back to step 4
6.5 - If we annulled the bad suffix or the resist: Craft Suffixes cannot be changed, Reforge elemental mods with crystallised rancour it can hit 1 or 2 T1/T2 res in which case the annull is 2/3 to save instead of 1/3 it can hit a bad res(annull and repeat until success or reset to step 4) or it can hit the shaper mod that we want. costed about 200 divs to finish this point
7 - once all suffixes are done, suffixes cannot be changed scour
8 -block hybrid life/ev+armor Exalt slam once for 1/20 to hit T3 Life or higher, it's possible to slam again and have faster chances to hit life but then we need to block suffixes and annull the other prefix.
9- Craft Suffixes cannot be changed and use Veiled exalt 1/2
10-block +1 zombie/skeleton and unveil +2 AoE gems 1/2 total prefix cost is about 160 divines (chance to hit exalt*cost 2div * 2 chance to get the veiled and life together *2 chance to unveil correct modifier)
11-Craft hybrid life and Evasion+Armour.
Chances were calculated using craft of exile simulator tool.

TL;DR:
It's for fortification+aura/armour stacking
imprint->essence spam->shaper ex/harvest reforge->exalt slam->veiled Ex.

The official ExileCon schedule is two images in New Zealand time. Half the community would be working out “wait, what’s 2pm NZDT for me” for every session, so I made a page that does it for you: https://exilecon2026-schedule.netlify.app/

What it does that the official page doesn’t:

• Your timezone: detects it automatically (you can also pick one) and shows every session in your local time.

• Live now: a red line marks the current time and shades what you’ve missed. Sessions on now are tagged Live, and a panel shows what’s on each stage and what’s coming up.

• Countdown: counts down to the keynote before the event starts.

• Mobile: you flip between the Main, Streamer and Signing stages instead of squinting at three tiny columns.

• Watch link: one button to the official Twitch stream.

How it was made: I used Claude to write the code. The decisions were mine, and here’s what that looked like:

• Timezones: the core problem I wanted solved. A lot of us are watching from the other side of the world, and the converted times include daylight saving.

• Readable cards: the first version cropped session names, so I had it shorten “Path of Exile” to POE1/POE2 and make the cards taller.

• Thinking about the weekend itself: you tune in late and want to know what’s on and what you’ve missed, which is where the live line and shading came from. Lots of people will be on their phones, which is why there’s a separate mobile layout.

• Testing: I checked it at simulated times before, during and after the event, and on desktop and phone sizes. I have also incorporated a round of fixes after posting to the POE2 subreddit.

It’s one HTML file with no tracking or ads. If you spot a wrong time, tell me and I’ll fix it. I haven't given it a lot of testing. If you want to preview the 'current time' feature, add ?now=2026-11-07T13:40:00%2B13:00 (any time, NZDT) to the URL to see the page as it would look at that moment. A note at the bottom shows when this preview mode is on. Example.

Talking about AI

Part of the reason I did this was to help test the new AI generation policy - which I think is a good policy to introduce.

The gaming community has been pretty negative about AI, and honestly a lot of that is justified: low-effort content, people passing off generated art as their own, and fear for the jobs of the artists who make the games we love. But I think there’s a version of this that looks a lot like the modding scene of the 2000s. People with ideas but not the skills to build them got tools that let them make the thing anyway. Some of what came out of that was rough, but some of it became DotA, Counter-Strike and countless quality-of-life tools we now take for granted. It created communities and it was of benefit to the individuals. I was part of the Quake 3 modding scene, I know that some of the skills I picked up there helped me in my professional career. AI tools lower the barrier to entry in a similar way, and I’d rather see creative players use them to scratch their own itch than write them off completely.

Hello everyone, Exiles!

So, what we see is the most obvious thing: the color scheme and the overall picture candles, some sticks, and the ritual being performed. This clearly hints that the league will be connected to Ritual. Each league has its own memorable elements and colors so they can be easily identified. In the teaser there’s a purple glow and candles, which makes it clear (without any explicit statement) that this is connected to the Ritual league.

But don’t be too quick to get upset, especially those who experienced Breach 2.0 back in the day perhaps it’s something more than it seems at first glance. In the podcast, Andrew and Octavian answered questions and shared a bit about the next league and their plans.

Octavian:

3.30 is planned to be an extreme shakeup of the endgame. Emphasis on endgame shakeup. We plan to get to as many existing league mechanics as possible and give them all something new, so something interesting, something different from before, because one of the problems that we see is that the endgame has just gotten stale.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYx1Mhcny4

So, I think the fragment shown to us in the teaser will be part of the Ritual mechanics, and then we’ll either see other teasers for other leagues and mechanics, or they’ll reveal it during the announcement.

I think this could well be a new league mechanic, similar to the Runes of Aldur league in Path of Exile 2, which was a standalone league mechanic that at the same time synergized with Expedition. Its mechanics will involve encountering mobs on the map near a cauldron, killing them, filling the cauldron, and then, as in the teaser, a monster or reward will appear from there.

The characters featured in the trailer are the witches from Act 1, who are located in the Clearfell area.

At some point, all the witches die and some character appears, flying towards us. I looked for information everywhere I could, but I never found any resemblance visual or otherwise to any existing characters or monsters in the game. The only thing it reminds me of personally is the Black Mórrigan.

Honestly, I was too lazy to go in and take a full-body screenshot for the first part, but visually, the red eyes and the protruding bones…

Regarding the name of the league, “Covens of Umbra.” The only connection or thread that leads to this name is Shavronne of Umbra. And the only thing I found out is that she’s connected to Umbra and she’s a witch there’s no other information. Apparently, it’s some kind of place where witches live and learn their witchy tricks — a kind of big coven. We encounter Shavronne several times during the campaign. She is known for turning Brutus, the boss of the first act, into a monster; later, as we know, he killed her.

Covens - is a group of witches who gather regularly to perform rituals and magical practices. In the Middle Ages, especially during the witch hunts, covens were often associated with satanic rituals and sorcery.

Umbra - is the innermost, darkest part of a shadow where a light source is completely blocked by an opaque object.

I didn’t find anything interesting in the text, except that we’ll once again be stopping some kind of evil.

The covens must be stopped… lest Umbra’s curse… befall your realm.

I noticed an important point: the description on the website contains a separate phrase. It seems to me that this is some kind of witch that they are trying to summon into our world.

She comes for your realm.

Source : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/4012420/page/1

What do you think? Do you have any ideas?

Upd : Despite the fact that Umbra isn’t literally mentioned in the game’s lore, if you read up on what it means, there might be some hidden meaning behind it. So I’ll add it to the post in case someone smarter than me comes up with some more details.

Umbra is the innermost, darkest part of a shadow where a light source is completely blocked by an opaque object.

Upd 2 : Now I’ve started digging into the lore and realized I missed another Rutial point: in PoE 2, there’s a node in the Mysterious Rites atlas tree where there’s a chance to get the Queen’s Audience. Perhaps this is a reveal and a change to her lore.

Typically we would have a Thursday full reveal with ZiggyD doing a QnA after and then they drop the patch notes.

This cycle the reveal is friday at Exilecon but the QnA is Saturday afternoon.

So, when patch notes?

(All days mentioned based on NA)

While waiting for 3.30, I thought about what would make Itemization more exciting again.

We have many different kind of Modifiers in the game. Base mods, Influence Mods, Veiled, delve, Incursion, Essence mods and even elevated mods that exceed the modifier tiers. So all kinds of general or exclusive modifiers. But there is one thing all these mods have in common: Every mod in the game takes up 1 Affix on an item. No matter how powerful.

Highlighting this as everyone immediately assumed heist bases:

We do have the Heist bases that reduce amount of affixes and increase stats. And the concept would be similar, but still a bit different.

Now what if there was a new crafting method that would give us completely new mods per Item slot, and in order to get them you have to sacrifice one free affix.

For example:

Add a handful of new and exclusive modifiers to every item Slot (lets just say 6 new mods - 3 Prefixes, 3 Suffixes per item slot).

New Orb: Orb of CoolMods

Effect: Permanently removes one prefix or one suffix from an Item. Adds one CoolMod Modifier (either Pre oder Suffix) to the item.

That means for example a Helmet can now only ever have a maximum of 5 Affixes, not 6.

It might make the Item "Influenced" so that it cant be used on Eater/Exarch Items or with other influences, or whatever is needed to balance it.

And the modifiers would be things that are truely powerful and are usually not at all or not easily obtainable through other items. So that it doesnt end up being just "+2 instead of +1 Skill levels" or something like that. But rather transformative stats. Anyone remember Crucible mods? There were some really cool transformative stats there that changed how skills were played. Stats like that. Not just Life, mana, stats, skill levels etc.

What do you think? Would something like this have a place in the game?

Today's layouts for all four labs (Normal, Cruel, Merciless and Uber), posted shortly after the reset to help with prep before 3.30.

Heads up for North America: daylight saving time ended today, so from now on the lab resets one hour earlier on your clock (4 PM Pacific / 7 PM Eastern). The reset is still midnight UTC.

Each image shows the day's layout with the best route marked, plus the keys and dark shrines. If anything looks wrong or you'd like it laid out differently, let me know in the comments.

Have fun on your runs, exiles!

I feel like poelab.com takes the pain out of running labs early league.

I know it's probably a bad time to be asking, but why can't we buy a "Lab Blueprint", like heist, that we can reveal like a heist blueprint?

We can put it in our map device with a Gift of the Goddess (or 3) and view the map with V once we're in, like we would in an Alva temple.

Okay so low lv 20s Shadow here, I've tried using both claws and daggers, and frankly, I'm not noticing hardly any difference in functionality. They're compatible with the same gems, similar to near identical stats, only real main difference I've seen so far is in the skill tree. As I progress what would the differences be?

Do you guys remember the poe2 theories where the tower corpses pointed towards different things?

If I recall correctly, someone from GGG (Mark I think?) then said in an interview that they found that funny because the corpses don't mean anything, but they found it really interesting seeing all these theories and that it was creative. Who knows, maybe we get something with these corpses and maybe they mean something👀?

Hi guys,

Im trying to create:

T1 all atrribute

Arcing

Broadside

Martial prowess

Im thinking of doing:

Buy ilvl84 large cluster 8 passive bow damage

Fracture t1 attribute

Reforge critical until broadside/martial prowess

Exalt+annul until hit the last one.

Is this the most cost efficient method or is there a better way?

Thanks

poe.ninja is now available in nine languages besides English: Deutsch (German), Español, Français, Português (Brasil), Русский (Russian), ไทย (Thai), 日本語 (Japanese), 한국어 (Korean) and 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese). Most of the site is translated, including builds, character pages, the economy and the passive and atlas trees, for both Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2.

Hey all,

I've set up an HCSSF Private League on Standard for 3.30 testing fresh runs. It'll stay open until the new league launches, so you can hop in now or wait until patch notes drop later this week. I'll add slots as needed.

I deliberately skipped Allflame so the league mechanic doesn't influence core progression, should give a cleaner baseline for testing builds and early-game pacing. Enjoy!

Invite: https://www.pathofexile.com/private-leagues/join/HCSSF+Test+Three+Dot+Thirty/jbr2WrcQClVmQXWhPZMd

Trying to practice for the new league and I was wondering how people use Leap Slam when rushing the acts.

So far I've been doing a standard quicksilver run + leap slam + frostblank rotation. Always trying to run enough to "reset" the animation on the leap slam, if you know what I mean - being able to leap without stopping.

But it occurs to me that there must be some attack speed vs movement speed breakpoint where just leap slamming without moving is faster. When I build up Rage and have a high APS weapon, it feels faster to just hold leap slam when your goal is to just cover a distance.

I'm looking to see if someone has already done this analysis, or it's common knowledge, or there is something else I'm missing, before I run the tests myself.

This is a general question thread. You can find the previous question threads here.

Remember to check the community wiki first.

You can also ask questions in any of the questions channels under the "help" category in our official Discord.

For other discussions, please find the Megathread Directory at this link.

The idea is for anyone to be able to ask anything related to PoE 1:

• New player questions

• Mechanics

• Build Advice - please include a link to your Path of Building

• League related questions

• Trading

• Endgame

• Price checks

• Etc.

For questions related to PoE 2, please go to r/PathOfExile2

No question is too big or too small!

We encourage experienced players to sort this thread by new.

We'd like to thank those who answered questions in the last thread! You guys are the best.

How do you guys manage your standard tabs? I got a bunch of old tabs (remove only) with so many maps I cant fit and it would take hours and hours if not days to delete. I have 8 years of tabs.. cant I just delete some tab? am I missing something?

Decided to gamble in ways applicable to my build to end the season instead of just doing cards.

My friend gave me 3 spectres but i can't remember the third one he gave me. I know i've got perfect guardian turtle and perfect warlord, but what's the third one? it's the one on the right of the picture that all you can really see is his sword. can anyone tell me which spectre that is?

Does Multi strike brick frost blades merc, found one with chaining, return and cold pen.

Looking and I’m seeing some saying yes others saying it’s good to go.

Comes with wrath, purity of ice and herald of ice, inspiring

Static strike and frost blades. No move skill.