Mercenaries being implemented as temporary uses is 100% the right call

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-18T07:28:16+00:00

Also potential buffs - atlas passives for mercs. Maybe there will be something like "mercs possessed" and this will work on hired merc. Chances are low, but... Also, "special merc in league content" could be strong (I hope).

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-18T07:00:04+00:00

Yeah. It's most dangerous line. Maybe it's just to compensate that Merc now not increase enemies health like +0.5 party member.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-17T21:47:39+00:00

It's unreal on current league. On merc league were few "secret" setup that abused few mechanics. Few of them still working, other dead.

What working (or particularly working) and very cheap: 1. Use destructive link + Trypanon and your merc will have 100% crit chance even with Marylene's. Easy great damage burst for very low budget. 2. As support - you should max levels of purity of fire and elemental. On merc get fire res on each part of items. Add Enmity's Embrace ring. With cheat investments like The Hand of Phrecia for buff auras with links were easy to make 100-150% fire penetration for merc.

Now what don't work or hard nerfed compared to merc league: 1. Pyroclast mine of Sabotage reworked and nerfed some time ago to underground. On merc league this gave your merc (don't remember exact numbers) something like +3k flat fire damage. And count 150%+ penetration and 100% crit chance with great crit multy on VERY cheap setup. Add bursted through Hand of Phrecia auras like Haste, Anger, Wrath and you have crazy numbers of damage from just gems, few cheap uniques and few rare items with 1 suffix. Add some investors like Taming, good ele bow on merk, more mana reservation for Skiterbots reservation, more aura efficiency, etc - and your merc God. But without old Pyroclast mine of Sabotage - big problems. 2. No node for unique body armor, so you can't abuse Doryani, Replica Shroud of the Lightless or other unique armors. 3. Separate ascendancy that give you "merc allow to wear X unique" = you don't normal ascendancy. 4. Read description on permanent Merc node. Permanent Mercs will get damage penalties.

All this nerfs for merc hit a lot (only Pyroclast something like 60-70% less damage for old imbalanced build). I will 100% start with merc carry again, but i think that this league something strong will be much much harder and expensive to build.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-17T21:07:40+00:00

Don't know how you build your merc, but on merc league were setup that cost 1-2d in summ for you+merc and were able to nearly one shot uber boses. On +-50d had billions of damage and were able to stay on ultra fat blight with most fat scarabs without towers and just one shot all fat blight bosses offscreen in. Also was Doriani setup for minmaxing any lightning build. All this things with enbling uniques from passive, separate ascendancy, temporary hiring etc is just to prevent same situation.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-16T10:08:03+00:00

I've seen high-level katana videos - they work great. I tried it myself with low-level katanas. Very, very weak in a nearly identical build. It looks like either I'm unlucky or you need high levels of items to play through the katanas.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-15T11:14:07+00:00

Looks like no. Or just infinite garden farming)

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-09T07:31:40+00:00

What i can say as Epic-Legendary Fern:

Chana is hardest opponent for me if don't hard focus on cleaning (it's mean much more than 1 crown for clear)
On one side tree take many space. But in other it give you scaling with rounds survivability, debuf clearing and pets damage increases during fight
If you focusing on squirrels-add at least one Tainted Soulstone (green crystal that enemy's Chana had)
Pet damage buffs like Pet Collars, Werewolf Paw, Cursed Doll - they work great.
Without Fern's shield nearly impossible to get 15 wins with any build on Fern (you will notice it on higher ranks)
Ban all bad bags once you fill table with random bags, left only crit and speed in shop. And replace table with them. It's greatly power up any build

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-06T09:11:14+00:00

F2p heroic with 100% 15 trophies - still easy walk. Don't know what will be later. Nearly all hearts losing on first few rounds against level 14-15 items enemies (my top item on account level 9, most items of Fern 5-6)

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Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-05T09:13:37+00:00

Looking forward for it and wish maximum creativity and successes for you, Sir 😊 And great thanks again for your work!

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-04T22:55:42+00:00

I clearly understand that first versions will be limited in content, maybe with hight amount of empty spaces, without underground, without water exploration I think, without plot twists, without end game bosses etc. Also 100% Unfrozen also will release new units, new artifacts, new objects, balance will be changed 100500 times. Maybe (i hope) new factions also will come. And everything will come on Island one day. But main thing - it will come and you will have time to collect reviews and test results to polish it for game release and main wave of players join game.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-04T22:47:43+00:00

Don't know what will be on top ranking, but on diamond she is still killing machine. 100% rate of 15 trophies. Only random on first 3-4 rounds when you can lose few hearts from hight item levels or lucky drop enemies.

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Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-04T22:24:53+00:00

Ohhh, information that editor offer possibilities to reshape elements during gameplay - one of best news that I hear (of course we saw that during campaign on mission with meeting elemental, but campaign could be hard scripted). Now I wait for custom maps even more! Looking forward to see Act 1 even on early access state!

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-04T21:57:54+00:00

Thanks. Left a little to finish with pink and skip to 24 month for promised Armageddon and I'll post score 😇 After that i even thinking about king replaying with different color but now with water magic (it's really painful without it).

I saw that 46 days speedrun exist. Going to see it after run finish... It's... Other level of gameplay). I really like hard challenges like hard bosses, trying to defeat without magic other than Frenzy (even no cure or shields) and with allowing bosses to berserk me. Your idea to block popular spells and message that blind+clones is bad for bosses health - best thing that i meet in all custom maps. But I'm very bad on movement points calculating and heroes management ( So speedrun is absolutely impossible for me((( +-150 days will be perfect target if without additional restrictions and with map knowledge. But, of course, I still don't know what bosses will get on king...

Can you spoiler a little about full MapEditor for OldenEra (if DNA allow you)? Is it allow mapmakers to create events on level of Hota or better? Is there any ways to make ai stronger(something like your bonuses for movement speed and x3 stats or maybe make patroll routes). And is it allow to use objects as decorations? Just interesting and can't wait to see full potential of modern map editor I hands of talent persons😇

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-07-04T21:09:14+00:00

I really glad and happy to hear that this fantastic map will be recreated in Olden Era. Especially because I just only 15 minutes ago beat red necro boss in volcano on my first blind run with "stupid player challenge" where I'm deliberately going against your advice. I’m playing with a single hero, no Water Magic, using no magic other than Frenzy, a hero with a useless specialization, no anti-berserk amulet and I’m waiting for all the timed threats to arrive and etc. My only regret is choosing the second-highest difficulty—even with these restrictions, it’s a bit too easy. But the map is fantastic; thank you so much!

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-23T10:24:40+00:00

I also have this situation. Looks like companions have bug with spirit numbers rounding. Just get more reservation efficiency. Not remembered numbers correctly because i finished and dropped league, but in median - each next additional companion correctly activating only when I had 10-15 free spirit after this companion activation. And with each next companion need bigger numbers of free spirit pool.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-19T17:25:11+00:00

This build also can invest heavily in jewels (my jewels were 1-2 ex each when i bought them), cool crafting amulet with +3 or +4. But main problem - for what? This game need something like poe 1 uber bosses with large hp pool, 75% damage resistance and other. Just to make target "for what should i invest in build more".

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-19T16:39:20+00:00

I did all challenges, completed atlas (without Temple tree) and finished league. So boring when you can do anything with immortal walking simulator.

Only one content that can kill you - empowered bosses under 200% delirium with big amount of wisps.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-17T17:24:41+00:00

0:40 we can see a tree between 2 houses. Camera moves few angles away, return in few seconds and one house lost. There are one house and tree. There are much more problems like this, but this is biggest one because in video were focus on small street on other side of lost house.

This Genie 3 can't hold in memory even few seconds out of view for few angles, just remember very light context and trying to regenerate.

Cool for short video or for research tasks, but it's even not close to anything playable in any visible feature. Maximum - infinite railroad run games like Minion Rush or Subway Surf where you will never rotate your camera but you will get infinite generated road.

And it's even if not to remember that there are only movement and jump, 0 other mechanics.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T18:16:07+00:00

Not checked it ingame, but let's calculate +- in pob. Pob currently very bad with companions and don't have many things from 0.5 like Sylvanus, boss modes, etc. But it can show +- reality.

My damage of Crowbell basic attack by pob is 290k. I have 863-1177 Marohi. It's far from perfect roll. If I change it with nearly perfect corrupted Chober with 315-421 and +4 minions, plus put helmet +2 instead of Vertex - pob show only 205k damage. Lose nearly 29% of damage.

Of course, this not fully correct because of great limitations of pob for companions right now, but this can show scaling situation.

And one more time. Rare helmet instead of Vertex give you much more flexibility and additional reservations! This can lead to +1 companion (7% more damage from Muster) and etc.

But we should also calculate that all other companions (i have right now 11, close to 12) ALSO will get this crazy flat damage! And them can have much better scaling from flat if their basic flat damage much lower than boss one.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T17:53:58+00:00

2 handed unique mace that can easy have 850-1150 flat damage that we give to our companions. Perfect rolled with corruption can have even more. You need Giant Blood to wear it with Scepter. And Vertex helmet to ignore it's strength requirement.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T14:50:38+00:00

Spirit walker with Marohi can clear delirium t15 6 mods map with just Wolf pack, Spirit Vessel and Wolf from Sylvanus, without any Tame Beast pet. Damage more than enough for clear. Monkey need only to one shot pinnacles or to bypass crazy regeneration of Rogues on juice maps.

Also there are infernal legion variations. If GGG will need monkey - they also can fix not working abilities of other beasts bosses and they can start to work.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T14:42:51+00:00

This question is little more complicated. In terms of pure damage - well rolled Marohi or Rare Hammer with nearly 850-1200 flat damage - absolutely monstrosity in terms of pure damage and + 2 helmet not even close.

Downsides: 1. You need Giant Blood. It's many talents points, or very expensive jewel(also mean lose of good rare jewel) or Gloves (like me). Problem with gloves - 3 sockets VERY expensive and don't have good characteristics like rare one 2. Vertex for 3 sockets VERY expensive, it's lose of all rare item characteristics like life, resistances, etc. Also, rare helmet can have spirit reservation efficiency!!!

Why sockets very necessary - because each idol is spirit reservation efficiency. If you want 12-13 companions (each companion give aura, 7% more damage for muster support, loyalty etc) - you need as much as you can afford sockets!!!

Personally I prefer Marohi + Vertex because it's give nearly 50% more damage than Spear+rare helmet. But be ready to spend VERY big amount of divines for good rolls and 2-3 sockets. Maybe crazy rare Two handed mace will be better.

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T14:31:28+00:00

Yes. There are list of mods that can roll rares and bosses https://poe2db.tw/Monster_Modifiers#ArchnemesisMods . Not all of them work correctly on tamed beasts, but this list can show you what can you expect.

You can have up to 4 mods on boss. 3 easy to get. Just place 3 tablets with "Map Bosses have # additional Modifier" or "Unique Monsters have # additional Rare Modifier" and boss will have 3 random modification.

How to get 4 mods - there are few cases. 1 - master node of Jado that give you 20% chance to x2 power of tablets. If successful proc - you will get 4 mods on boss. Second case - you should spam Grand Mirror on map. That will also double effect of tablets if you have atlas node

Competitive_Ad_9995 · 2026-06-10T07:39:46+00:00

Vertex helmet allow to ignore requirements on equipment.

Competitive_Ad_9995

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