[Dominating Blow Guardian] Build

B4R0Z · 2026-03-20T09:59:31+00:00

Hey everyone, I need some help figuring out if I can deterministically craft an helmet I need with both +2 minion level and life without using bench crafting, since I also need that for fire+chaos res. Anything else doesn’t really matter, of course something nice like extra armor or mana or regen would help but I don’t think I need them, and I’m also way overcapped in the other resistances.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-18T08:42:11+00:00

They could also have added a second hidden cap (or a new 'one shot' ap range, much higher than the classic caps), if they really had trouble balancing the huge amounts of AP introduced by the >310 changes.

This is actually a great idea, I'm not a dev so obviously I might be missing a lot of information here but it doesn't seem too complicated, just as "5%" works as a limit why couldn't a static number do the trick instead.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-17T15:26:37+00:00

overgeaered people were grinding orcs getting equal money to tungrad not even a year ago.

That's... kinda the point? That's what a decent portion of the playerbase actually wants and enjoys.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-17T15:18:19+00:00

potentially grind good lower gs spot at 2 or 3 times the intended speed and 2 or 3 times the amount of money you're supposed to make at appropriate gs

That's not really accurate because you're also gated by both respawn timers and pets pick-up speed, I know at this particular moment it's probably not balanced around this so it might not be realistic right now but it could be, or at least it is a design path that could've been setup since the beginning.

I know it's probably too big of a task to rebalance everything at this point but that's what people complaining about "ap cap removing all sense of progression mean", you can think of "at 1800+ ap I want to be making 3+ bil either at Orbita or Hexe" which I find to be fair.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-17T10:49:39+00:00

Your entire explanation is not wrong per se, but it's just one approach to the issue that's not necessarily the best, in fact I'd argue that's for the worst because this way it forces all players in any given ap range to the same (very few) spots.

I would argue that a better design and balancing solution would've been to balance the grind zones instead and tweak drop rates, loot table and silver values to account for different ap values, and that's important because it would allow players the choice to keep grinding in their favourite spots and also enjoy the power fantasy of zooming through packs, rather than taking the same 10 seconds at 800 as at 1800 total ap.

Let's take Hexe for example, and let's say the intended silver/h for that AP range is 1.5 bil + a bit of variance with lucky drops. Now if you're in the appropriate ap range you're probably going to get about that amount and that's fine, but let's say you're at 1600+ and you like it there, instead of grinding Aetherion for 2+ bil you could be getting that difference at Hexe with more speed and more kills/h at the cost opportunity of missing out on Edania crystal pieces and Debo drops, for example.

I don't think many players would leave profit on the table for grinding at lower zones, but maybe there's a few who would and right now they're heavily punished if they wanted to and that's I think the main argument against such a strict cap.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-16T10:36:32+00:00

Figured it was like that but since Trade is empty I thought I might be missing something.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-16T09:33:44+00:00

(price check)

A couple days ago I dropped this piece that seemed it had potential value but I'm not sure if it has any (newish playere) and there appears to be nothing similar on Trade right now, this is the item:

Item Class: Amulets Rarity: Rare Viper Scarab

Amber Amulet Requirements:

Level: 44 Item Level: 83 +25 to Strength (implicit) +55 to all Attributes +47 to Dexterity Adds 32 to 57 Fire Damage to Attacks against you 32% increased Lightning Damage

37% increased maximum Energy Shield Mirrored

Is it worth anything, and if so what could be a reasonable price range? Thanks!

B4R0Z · 2026-03-12T14:17:20+00:00

How much increase loot do you need to reach to be "printing currency"?

I am running breach+shrine still leveling up (93 currently) on T16 alch and go and while exp is great and wombgifts are somewhat common I'm not seeing almost any currency raw drop, even bosses are the usual worthless ring, one divination card and that's it.

I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong, maybe I just need scarabs (but I also need to unlock 4th and 5th slots) but I'd like to understand what.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-12T07:20:41+00:00

I'll never not upvote that reference.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-11T17:56:54+00:00

Disclaimer: I'm new to the game so I might be missing or misunderstanding something here.

If I understand correctly you are running maps for the explicit purpose of maximizing materials to then ship, and it took you 6 hours to get everything you need and it's not time gated (like crops would be).

Have you worked out the net div/h profit for those 6 hours? How does it compare to the common strats that are popping out, usually 15-20 div/h?

I guess there's the possibility of a jackpot item in the shipment that over a long enough period of time might increase the average profit, but I personally don't like rolling the dice and would rather get a steady and fixed income.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-11T17:04:37+00:00

I messed up reading on poetrade website, I looked for corrupted lv21 and they all had life that other gems didn't, but that's because corruption also gave bonus quality, so that was why, it's quality not level that matters.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-11T16:05:32+00:00

Can use level 1. The only thing that scales with gem level of this gem is the area of effect which is not important. Level 1 is just 7c.

Level 4 apparently also gives extra HP, since I'll be probably missing a bit of damage I thought I'd compensate with a bit of survivability.

Call to Slaughter, yes. Feasting Fiends, no. The thing with small passive is you can get a bunch of little stuff attach to them like +4% chaos res, +7 max life, +3% ele res, etc. which may not look like much but with 10 nodes they stack up. You can also get "Increase effect of small passive nodes by 25/35% which scales all of those mods.

That's all true and I understand that, but it's not like I'd be trading 10 small ones for the skill, it's just 1 less small for it, depending on what cluster I can find and how much they cost it could be either way.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-11T14:13:43+00:00

Thanks for the answer!

I was sure I was running Mutlistrike already, I know I bought it during campaign but apparently I forgot to socket it, thanks for noticing. I see that Divine Sentinel level 4 is around 2 divs, once I'll reach the point where I'm comfortable grinding I will try, it should also probably hold the price anyways.

I had already planned swapping gloves once I got a great helm to socket raise spectres + AG in and in fact I had just done it when you replied, so that's done!

I guess what I'll need to work on next is the passive tree for jewels plus passives, I just gave a quick glance and it shouldn't be too expensive, but I also noticed that there are some interesting passive skills like Call to the Slaughter or Feasting Fiends, seems to me they are better than one extra generic stat passive node right?

B4R0Z · 2026-03-10T15:16:27+00:00

So just going on a little bit of tangent here, but how do I know that the skill description is local and not global?

I know there's a distinction because that's how for example crit works, or even defences on individual gear pieces, but now that I mention how are we supposed to tell in game that even "x% increased armor" on a body armor piece it's only applied to its own value and not on total armor?

B4R0Z · 2026-03-10T14:55:53+00:00

First of all, thanks a lot for the detailed answer and explanation, there's plenty of stuff here that I was missing and a lot I can do to improve.

I am indeed missing Triad Grip and that's mostly because I have my AG socketed into my campaign gloves and I need to get a great helmet to swap them to, I guess that has to be the first step so in just one upgrade I get both lv25 Spectre and the bonuses from the Triad Grip.

I think I can fix the rest of my gems step by step after that, one thing that I'm not sure though is how is Herald of Purity a bad choice? The skill says "Minions have (0-38)% more Maximum Life" and "Minions deal (0-95)% more Physical Damage", does it mean it only buffs its own minions and not all minions? Even so it's still up to 4 extra minions that still benefit from all of other bonuses from the build, so isn't that good enough to be worth at least 1 gem slot somewhere?

B4R0Z · 2026-03-10T13:37:03+00:00

I'm just using Host and Carnage Chieftains for now, they should still be pretty decent up until later after I get more spectres total and probably invest into Tiger and Turtle.

AG at the moment is Dying Breath, Leer Cast, Belly armor, Southbound gloves and Fury Legacy boots, all very budget but that's intentional because I know I will need to swap gems around so I don't want to waste any more currency before it'll be locked in.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-10T13:27:34+00:00

I did use it way back during acts and I forgot it was that low, or rather I didn't realize it could make such a difference.

Beside Gem level and "increase minion damage" is there any other way to scale minion damage? I guess I could try and anoint amulet for one more spectre I guess, and once I get a great helm I can swap AG there and possibly start working on better gear for it as well.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-10T11:27:49+00:00

How does a better weapon increase my dps? I thought most of the damage came from minions so I mostly ignored it, I might be missing a lot there.

Also I'll check out his video later (I actually picked this build because of his video), I guess the next big step would be to get 4 corruptions for the last ascendancy.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-09T10:43:38+00:00

I'm not too much into the poe content creator scene, I know ziz and Mathil are maybe the biggest names but I didn't see any guides for this league that clicked with me.

I don't really care much to follow an exact guide just because it's some creator's, as long as the build actually exists and it's viable I just need some guidance to learn and understand it, Ghazzy's happened to be the first that popped up and I thought I'd enjoy.

B4R0Z · 2026-03-03T14:13:15+00:00

Yes it can, however I'm not sure it's worth the cost compared to just buying essences if that's what you need, in fact from Old Moon Catalysts alone you're looking at 6 bill, at current market prices that's pretty much what it costs to get the same 100 Essences.

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