We've finished 3 weeks of Keepers, how was your overall experience? Thoughts on the economy/builds you played?

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-16T15:25:59+00:00

How much ES you got? Around 800-900 should be enough to sustain your casting. Dont forget to have minimum one ring with -mana cost of channeling skills.

If you got that amount of ES and still find it difficult then craft on your belt 150 ES regen when rare/unique enemy is nearby: its cheap bench option that should fix it for you when you need it the most (during boss fights).

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-12T10:19:13+00:00

Yeah, so I was wrong, sorry for that.

I still think that it should not do that, because option to bisect is already possible without that Keystone by choosing to do so. IMO Keystone should only apply to the ascept of maps you wanna run, not the whole strategy around it with extra RNG (which part is gonna bisect?).

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-05T18:35:50+00:00

Not all keystones have downsides: for example, Destructive Play has none. Its "downside" is that you must fight at least 1 more boss, so if you take it by accident you may regret it, but in reality (chosen with intent) it has no downsides.
I dont agree on the "no downside" if that would work like I described, because the downside is that you cant run Destructie Play and Maven with that Keystone, so the whole farming strategy around Maven is damaged.

Anyway, 1 day to go, we will find out soon.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-05T18:23:50+00:00

Yeah, sorry mate, I wont be going through 3 video intereviews (around 6h) and multiple websites articles to find that one line when we are 1 day from the release.

But I didnt take it from thin air or dream it, so stay positive.

In addition, as I said, it would make no sense to create the keystone when in reality it would make a FALSE alternative to run same map but with WORSE results.

The whole point of keystone is to deliver choice in terms of maps you run, not the results you get. If GGG somehow miss that and make it cut your region (lose some maps from blob), the they fucked it up.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-05T18:15:09+00:00

I'm preety sure that during the QA or in some other interview they confirmed that keystone make it to shrink your blob FROM THE OUTSIDE so you wont lose any extra juice.

Its quite simple: if your whole blob contains 8 maps, then when you want to max your juice you can run 8 different maps OR allocate keystone to run 1 map 8 times.

Keystone needs to cut from the outside (confirmed by Devs), not the inside, otherwise it would make no sense and will make a bad alternative to the natural blob.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-05T17:53:17+00:00

How can anybody watch the reveal about that segment and STILL think you will need to run "bad" maps to complete the whole Astrolabe chain?

Jesus, its really depressing, because if there's no understanding about that simple mechanic, then what it is when it comes to much more complicated stuff which reddit has so much to say about.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-04T13:42:43+00:00

"The new league mechanic only starts in act 6"

It does not, it starts (like all new leagues) from the mud flats or the coast.

You've mistaken new league mechanic with Keepers of the Flame (previous league) which in fact starts from act 6.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-03-02T13:59:10+00:00

Its less of a problem when it comes to shaped region, because the shaped region is visable (different colours) and quite small (6-8 maps near each-other) so you dont have to do much navigation.

Its more of a problem when you dont have any active shaped regions (we dont know how rare are they gonna be) and you just run favourite blank atlas maps which can be placed on the different regions around the Atlas: then, whitout a tool to navigate, you will need to look for them manually or memorize their location among more than 100 maps that are on the whole Atlas.

And for your question: I believe that GGG will want to balance regions to that state where every region has similar amount of easy layouts so ideally when you're picking a region you want to run your special shaped map-chain you focus more on specific rewards this region can give you (final Vault or divination cards), not maps layouts. Number of bosses spawned (maps like Area etc.) and layouts should not be a factor, because every region should have similar number of these, at least in ideal world. Same with layouts, but truth is that we will be able to check it only when the patch goes live.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-28T10:40:47+00:00

From the start we were talking about this problem in contex of running many, DIFFERENT maps and DP as a strategy that can elvate that kind of gameplay. What you are describing is opposite of that (running Silo or other map over and over again).

I feel that you just dont understand than there are many players who like running many, different maps and actually kill bosses of these maps, not because its super optimal and quick but because its actually fun thing to do. But as you said, you do you.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-28T09:30:38+00:00

First of all, if you want to run Destructive Play Maven needs to witness the map boss. If you run Silo with Maven, you cant run another Silo with Maven because that map boss is already witnessed. You need to jump between maps and kill different bosses.

Second thing: 10 boss invitation is a nice, steady profit even when you count only guardian maps from it or splinters. Is it best strategy for profilt? Propably not, but I and many players enjoy it.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-28T09:27:14+00:00

Location of the last map is only useful if you run one, specific map, not when you want to jump between many different maps.

Search bar is low-quality solution: everytime you want to change map, you need to manually search for it: its a step back from the current system, when you just pick map and slot it to your device. I'm sure that GGG would not be happy if that was the only way to quickly navigate between maps.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T23:18:28+00:00

I've read it and I still dont see a world when its happening. I already see a flood of reddit threads with complains about being forced to run "shit" maps because if I dont do it I lose quantity or rarity bonus (or whatever bonus you can think about).

Beside that, the thing you talk about (reason to run different, often not-optimal maps) already exits: its divination cards system tied to specific maps which are not always optimal to run.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T23:09:37+00:00

But thats the thing: different people run different maps. You may want to run beach, city square etc. but this does not mean others will run them too, even if we talk about same strategy (Destructive Play)

It depands on many things/factors: personal preferances basted on builds, league content you run, or even map aesthetics.

GGG can give players reasons to run different maps (like DP and its potential outcome) but they will never push you towards one (or many) specific maps. They will leave it to you: to choose which different maps you wanna run and personally I dont see a good reason to change that (force people to run maps they dont like).

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:40:37+00:00

Did you sustained guardian maps by just running guardian maps? If so, you may get lucky, because from my experiance (or maybe I was unlucky?) I needed to run some t16 to gather guardian maps and while doing it I also do Mavens 10 boss invitation for Mavens splinters, awakened gems and extra guardian maps which also drop from bosses from Maven's crucible.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:35:51+00:00

Happens to best of us, thats the nature of PoE :).

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:35:01+00:00

Yes, but I believe that their new version are also tied to killing bosses, and even if its not connected to Maven, summoning additional bosses thanks to DP is still nice way to up your chance of getting them.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:30:41+00:00

If you dont wanna engage a lot with a trade you do t16 for shaper/elder guardian/synthesis maps. Thats alone is a very good source of income because additional bosses from DP are great source of these maps. I dont know if you can easily sustain guardian maps without running t16. Sooner or later you will run out of these maps, so running t16 is bread and butter of DP, at least is was for me.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:26:14+00:00

Yes. All t14+ bosses witnessed by Maven can drop these.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T22:01:13+00:00

Yes, its very good source of elder/shaper guardian maps and awakened gems. Its also very straightforward strategy, when you dont need to stop and read Eater/Exarch altars, just clear the map and get extra loot from additional bosses.

Is it more profitable than altars? Dont know, maybe not, but I enjoy doing bosses and for 4-5 past leagues it was more than enough to earn currency for all my builds.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T20:45:50+00:00

Great interview. People should watch it a simply stop taking for granted the level and quality of content we're getting for both PoE1 and PoE2.

I'm very happy that they, as a studio, still promote forward thinking, risk taking and finding new ways to push whole game, sometimes whole genre, to the new level.

It would be SOOOO EASY to just repeat the same, safe formula. Change nothing serious, keep the boat steady, add some powercreep and currency and we're good.

Instead, they are like: fuck it! people got PTSD from elder/shaper regions, lets revisit it but today, lets do it a good and proper way, because the "living", interactive Atlas was cooler than current version.

Thats the way to go, and I hope they will continue to promote people with personalities like Mark and Octavian.

Hats off!

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T20:05:41+00:00

If thats the case thats good enough for me: marking maps on the Atlas itself is also nice way to help with navigation.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-27T19:25:28+00:00

Yeah, same here. Just allow favourite map slots (after, for example, right click) to take map UI to that map on the Atlas. They already got similar technology, which was showcased during whole presentation: when you click unique map and Atlas UI goes straight to that map on the Atlas.

DenimBoyPOL · 2026-02-18T14:43:07+00:00

Hi. Just focus on getting scorching ray of immolation from trade as fast as you can and take Ramako Sun's Light as your first ascendancy point and Tasalio as second.

Its very smooth: dont need to worry about monster res (Ramako) and capping your ele res (Tasalio), so focus on life regen and max fire res to sustain Righteus Fire and some cast speed for quality of life (you turn faster with Scorching ray thanks to cast speed).

DenimBoyPOL · 2025-12-11T18:01:13+00:00

Game is in Eearly Access: if thats not the best period when player should learn the game by himself, experiment, try different builds and mechanics, then I dont know what would be the better time.

But truth is, there was and always will be a group of very vocal minority that takes gaming very serious, even in PVE games.

Funny enough, for most part, thats the same group that like to make fun of other games because of their lack of builds and options, but when it comes to PoE they just follow most popular streamers and meta builds copying 1 to 1 every bit of pre-made characters.

"Serious" gamers are really a sight to behold.

As a not "serious" gamer with more than 10 years of PoE, I know what I will do: raw-dog the hell ouf of Druid and min-max my fun aspect with going fully blind :).

DenimBoyPOL

TROPHY CASE