As you delve deeper into Path of Exile 2, the game becomes increasingly challenging, necessitating greater strategic planning and knowledge to maintain your performance. By the time players reach the endgame, they typically possess a solid understanding of their builds and the mechanics at play. However, navigating the Atlas of Worlds can present significant hurdles without proper preparation and game knowledge, especially for higher-tier Waystone maps.
After completing Act 3 of the Cruel campaign, players transition into the latter half of Path of Exile 2, where they encounter new strategies, prioritize different elements, and leverage various game mechanics. The following advanced tips are crucial for those gearing up to tackle the Atlas of Worlds and the challenges of the endgame. These insights may not only enhance your survival chances but also enrich your overall gaming experience.
Essential QoL Enhancements: Loot Filters & PoE 2 Sidekick
As you reach the endgame of Path of Exile 2 and immerse yourself in the Atlas of Worlds, you will encounter a flurry of loot dropped by enemies and bosses. However, not every piece of gear or item dropped is worth your attention. To streamline your experience, Loot Filters are invaluable tools that help emphasize significant item drops while filtering out irrelevant or unusable loot.
Particularly in high-tier Waystone maps, where the quantity of loot can easily overwhelm your screen, implementing Loot Filters is virtually a necessity. Furthermore, as you progress through the endgame, consider utilizing the Sidekick addon. This third-party tool runs seamlessly in the background and offers numerous user-friendly features, including map tracking, item price-checking, and comprehensive stash searching capabilities.
Salvaging: Why You Should Pick Up All Socketed & Quality Gear
While it may not be necessary to collect every dropped item in Path of Exile 2, gear featuring Rune Sockets or Quality is particularly valuable. Salvaging such items grants you essential crafting materials like Armorer’s Scrap, Blacksmith’s Whetstone, and Shards that can culminate into an Artificer’s Orb, which can add a Rune Socket to your equipment.
These currencies offer great utility not only for crafting but also for trading; for instance, two to three Armorer’s Scrap or five to six Blacksmith’s Whetstone can be exchanged for an Exalted Orb. Additionally, salvaging items with a Quality greater than 10% offers a considerable reward in Quality Currency, almost equivalent to an entire Exalted Orb.
If you utilize a Loot Filter, make sure to allow exceptions for quality items or those with Rune Sockets to avoid missing out on lucrative drops. In absence of such add-ons, keep an eye out for the small white square adjacent to item names, indicating Rune Slots. Items described as “Superior”have Quality, and hovering over drops will provide crucial information about their attributes.
Maximize Your Portals: Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em
In the late-game phase, activating a Waystone for your map within the Atlas generates six portals around you in the Ziggurat Refuge. Each portal allows a single return trip to refresh your Flasks, organize your inventory, and make necessary adjustments to your build for the ensuing challenges presented by the map.
Be aware that dying results in the closure of all portals, necessitating the use of an additional Waystone to re-enter and retry the map—provided you haven’t already damaged the map node. There’s no advantage to keeping portals open after completing a map, so do not hesitate to return to Town when resources are low. Even a brief return can significantly influence your success when tackling challenging maps.
Stay Prepared: Keep Spare Gear with Elemental Resistances
As you advance through the game, unwelcome penalties to your Elemental Resistances start to accumulate across various Acts, especially on Cruel difficulty. By the time you delve into the Atlas, maximizing your Elemental Resistances on gear becomes a necessity due to this compounding debuff and the heightened threat posed by endgame enemies.
While a balanced approach to Elemental Resistances is typically recommended, certain maps and enemy types may require focused resistance strategies. For instance, a map dominated by Fire enemies calls for increased Fire Resistance, and areas filled with Poison foes necessitate boosting your Poison defense stats.
If you discover gear with high resistance to a specific Element, keep it in your inventory. The unpredictable nature of the game means you could encounter a map with foes inflicting substantial Freeze and Cold damage, where having gear tailored for Cold resistance can enhance your survivability far more than relying on combat modifiers alone.
Atlas Skills: Prioritize Waystone Rarity & Drop Chance
Upon entering the Atlas and completing your initial ten Tier 1 or higher Waystones, you’ll receive a unique book from Doryani that grants you double Atlas Passive Skill Points. This Passive Skill Tree is distinct from the regular PoE 2 Skill Tree, applying solely to maps within the Atlas.
Among the various nodes on the Atlas Skill Tree, two key considerations should be Waystone Rarity and Waystone Drop Chance. Focus on acquiring the Passive Skill nodes that enhance Rarity and Drop Chance for Waystones, located toward the right and bottom right of the starting area in the Atlas Passive tree.
By prioritizing these Atlas Passive Skills early in the endgame, you increase the efficiency and rewards of acquiring additional Waystones. Although other nodes may be beneficial later, ensuring an ample supply of Waystones through improved rarity and drop chances is essential for adept mapping.
Resource Management: Don’t Waste High-Tier Waystones on Lost Towers
Upon exploring the Atlas, you may encounter your first Lost Tower, unique map locations that can be activated via an item called a Precursor Tablet to modify map nodes within their vicinity.
Every Lost Tower features a straightforward layout leading to a Precursor Beacon that, once activated, marks the tower as completed and grants access to its Precursor Tablet slot from the Atlas map interface. Due to the simplicity of these events, further compounded by the weak enemies present, it is unwise to expend high-tier Waystones on them.
Reserve your high-tier Waystones for more substantial farming opportunities. Instead, opt for a Tier 1 (or at least a low-tier) Waystone to swiftly bypass weak enemies and efficiently activate the Tower without the risk of compromising the location’s integrity.
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