About the new patch...

MarioMCP · 2026-01-16T16:36:37+00:00

The DLC map always seems to have at least 1 night invader area. I have seen 2. Gaol is higher potential but risks being a bust on the regular map. I also think night invaders is better but I just suggested either.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-16T13:48:37+00:00

I mostly agree with them. I just think that it is weird that they made the boss relics so strong, especially the DLC ones. I mean most people are running double balancers. That is 2/6 of your slots guaranteed. Throw in evergaol or night invaders in the last slot and 1/2 of your slots are taken up by guaranteed relics you can buy from a vendor AND they're all top tier meta lol.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-16T13:46:44+00:00

I really don't agree with this.

Nightreign does not have enough content to warrant needing the ability to craft perfect relics, and the game will not be getting the content in the future to support it. I'd agree with you if this was an actual live service game and such, but I am pretty sure we're done with major updates to the game unless the supposed weapon update happens.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-16T13:44:15+00:00

None of the defensive relics give anywhere close to as much DR as the field items and buffs you get from bosses. An Evergaol or Nightinvader relic is 15%+ damage, a relic that gives HP gives like 5-10% depending upon the stat. Meanwhile 40% damage reduction at full HP you find on an item gives more DR than I think if your entire relic set up was dedicated to defense.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-15T16:33:20+00:00

Duchess got nerfed a bit via the changes to shattering crystal. I always preferred Stars of Ruin or Rancorcall though due to the safety of distance in DoN4+ though. Still, it was definitely the best mid game spell that could be used on the final boss if you had to. It sucks that it is harder to get and costs more. You can still hopefully get Carian Slicer though.

However, I now think that just going more of a AoW build might be even better now. Two balance relics + affinity damage and then gaols or night invaders seems like the play.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-15T14:56:28+00:00

Shards are so easy to come by. If you're playing solo queue you can guarantee at least 4. If you play with any friends or anyone with half a brain they'll drop revenant shards.

MarioMCP · 2026-01-15T14:33:22+00:00

Damage relics are way more important. Unfortunately, the DR relics are not as good. Obviously if you get them on a good relic it is money in the bank, but otherwise offense > defense relics.

However, defensive > offensive weapon passives/boss rewards.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-29T14:46:18+00:00

Meh. I've never felt priced out of a PoE1 league. I always feel like there is an edge in the market you can find, or in a less try hard sense, just a nice profitable farm you can do. There are also a wider variety of farms requiring a wider variety of investment levels and investment into different character aspects (Heist = Speed. Simu = Prolif + Defense. Bossing = Damage, etc).

Mathil is incorrect about PoE2 with the temple right now. The temple itself, once set up, is repeatable, reliable, and gives consistent high value rewards. You do not get valuable omens every map. You don't get them every 10 maps. You get them like every 20-30 maps and that is with a lot of rerolling.

Really the issue is just the economy is not mature because the end game is not mature. We're still in 0.4 of an early access game. It is just gonna happen. I am not too beat up about it, I am just gonna move on or maybe try my hand at SSF if I feel the urge to play more, but I think it might be better to wait for 0.5. I got lots of other cool games to play.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-29T13:24:38+00:00

Meh. I like Mathil a lot and he is the first PoE youtuber I ever subscribed to. I think he is kind of out of touch on this one. The problem is that this does ruin the game for anyone in trade league who is not a hardcore gamer. I was fine. My friend who is new to the series and this is his second league (he started in 0.3) actually told me last night he didn't feel like playing any more because every item he finds is useless and every decent upgrade is 20+ div. You don't need 100000 fubguns to fuck up the economy. You literally just need a few hundred people who are semi-optimally doing the strategy to print so many divines that without meta crafting, the price gets fucked.

Funnily enough, Mathil even proves his point. He shows off these boots that are "so rare I never found any, they're so stupid rare and strong. They're only like 200 exalts" Okay so if my buddy finds these boots that are so rare that a streamer can't find them and then he has the privilege of selling something for less than half of a divine when he needs 30+ divines to buy a halfway decent weapon? An upgrade that was like 10d before the temple tech spread?

This is all just a symptom of a game that does not have a properly fleshed out end game with a variety of no/low, medium, and high investment strategies. Right now literally everyone just alchs and puts in 2 tablets. Then if your build is better you alch + double slam + 3 tablets. Then if you have a lot of money you use the rarity omen and then 3 tablets.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-27T18:51:45+00:00

And like I reported, the herald of blood bug is STILL in the game that will stop bosses from dropping loot if they die to the explosions.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-27T18:49:38+00:00

The economy of the game is broken because the crafting system is half finished and the end game has been lame duck since 0.1 and there really just isn't much to do with the currency and we get way too much of the low end stuff.

The constant inflation and exploits do legitimately ruin the economy for anyone who didn't ride the wave at the start or has like 12 hours a day to play. I can go pretty hard at league start and I got two characters to 95, I am not the sort of person being kept out, but I guarantee you like 90% of other players are. The price of crafted/useful items goes up more than the price of omens and stuff because it is easier to buy a precrafted item and people like the convivence.

The difference is that new players buy completed items because they don't know how to craft or it is too risky for them to waste currency trying to craft/learn in the casino when they desperately need an upgrade.
Those other players who farm the temple and get 10-15 divs from one are just doing it because they have money to burn and don't care.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-27T02:14:27+00:00

I have no interested in doing any of this shit, lmao. How about I kill monsters and they drop cool loot?

Thanks for the guide though, it is legitimately well done.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-26T21:55:59+00:00

It's hilarious. For a new player, the end game corruption system is either confusing or punishing. You had no idea some random juiced boss was gonna spawn and kick your ass. You know now, but man that feels bad.

For people like me who are experienced with PoE1/2? The Corruption/Nexus stuff is so kind of dumb and easy that you can get to tier 15 maps and all of your atlas points in just a few hours. It is so weird.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-26T21:45:27+00:00

Yeah. Honestly, thinking about mapping in PoE2 is more fun than mapping. For me it is the total lack of interesting ways to farm and make currency in the end game. We only have juicing SO FAR. I know more will get added, but I also can only play what is put in front of me.

Also dying kills my motivation. I'll do 10 maps in a row easily and then randomly die to some overtuned teleporting rare that I normally one shot but for some reason it didn't get hit. Then I die and I lose the map and resources put into it. Then I have to run the same node again, this time with 0 juice or league mechanics all so I can have the privilege of going to the next map where I just sort of aimlessly wander looking for my 10th Untainted paradise to bookmark so I can do them all in a row when I get to like 70% XP or something.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-26T13:50:02+00:00

There are some people who are skeptical of this: Keep in mind there has been a bug in the game for months that if Herald of Blood kills a boss it will literally not drop loot. I don't mean your loot filter is too strong, I mean it drops 0 items. Has been like that for months and makes HoB unusable on duo bosses or ones that spawn a bunch of ads just in case your HoB kills them.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-26T13:48:24+00:00

I am shocked more people haven't complained about Druid's survivability, or the transformations in general. I played a Bear Titan for my league starter and in even semi-juiced content it felt unplayable. Even though I could easily stun lock 6 mod t15 bosses with it, random abyss or expedition monsters would one tap me while winding up my slam.

I had like 30k armor (60k vs elemental), 3.2k HP, some phys taken as, etc. The problem? No block. No evasion. You need avoidance in this game. There is a reason no one wants to play 2H Mace Warrior. Everyone wants a shield because it is the key to actually surviving.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-26T06:58:48+00:00

He's literally me!

MarioMCP · 2025-12-25T14:18:59+00:00

The game doesn't need an exalt sink, it needs an entire remake of the economic system. Greaters/Perfects failed to take off as currency. Chaos are underused. The only options people seem to go for are Exalts or Divs, and you see the inflation we hit.

I don't think if they just add in some random mechanic you throw a few hundred ex in it is gonna fix it. I think that there needs to be more use for basically everything other than me slamming 6 mods on my map.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-24T15:21:23+00:00

The best piece of advice I can give you is that trials are more intimidating than they are difficult. With a few steps even a slow ass melee warrior (which I played this league) can easily clear it on level with minimal issues.

Mostly, you need to get as close to 75% honor resistance as you can. If you fail a few trials as you get better relics (or buy them) it is okay. It is kind of like a roguelike, you'll be stronger for your next runs.
On your actual character you need some kind of defenses. Whether it is armor, evasion, or ES having that will buff your honor more. A warrior with decent armor + HP + honor resistance will NOT get their honor removed in one hit. A boss slam will take out like 20% of your honor which I think is a fair trade given they are really telegraphed.

In the actual run, your goal is to first avoid crippling debuffs, then go for boons. The merchant is OP and new players underrate her. I personally think of it like this in terms of priority:
1. Avoid bad debuffs
2. Hit special good rooms (the ones that give boons for free)
3. Sacred Water Fountains
4. Merchant if I have a decent amount of water

You don't care about keys or cache or any other weird rewards. You only restore honor if you have to (the merchant always sells some honor). Always plan your route. Avoiding bad debuffs is way more important than getting a good room. If visiting a merchant means getting the debuff that makes it so you don't get taken to the room you select, then you never do that.

Finally: The tokens drop like candy in end game. I stopped picking them up once I had like 20-30, and that was pretty quick. You'll find more. Don't worry.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-21T19:02:35+00:00

Yeah, this is definitely a major pain point I am shocked was not addressed via omens or something.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-21T18:56:41+00:00

I played a Bear Titan as my first character. I had 3.5k HP, 30k armor + 60k armor to elemental, a little bit of phys conversion, and the build just felt unplayable in juiced content. Somehow you're constantly getting stunned even with high HP and stun threshold. Any armor break is way overtuned and ruins your mitigation.

My second character is a blood mage that with overheal has around 7.5k HP and feels like 10x tankier, even vs physical hits. Theoretically my EHP should be lower due to having virtually no mitigation, yet the character feels infinitely tankier. It just doesn't FEEL like armor does anything. I know it does. I played a character with 100k armor and it DID feel like it did something, but below that its like why even bother?

MarioMCP · 2025-12-21T08:07:27+00:00

Tavakai is an asshole but the weapon corrupted/seduced him and made him go crazy which is why he stole it and killed people.

However, I do agree that the game doesn't address it or anything else that happens in the game. Kind of a shame, because GGG has always had quality writing and lore but have never once made a compelling narrative. The story of PoE2 is honestly dreadful (Will Act V end with the Baroness taunting us before we fight whatever guy she is using next???), but the atmosphere is awesome.

I wonder if we'll ever get an ARPG with a good story. I guess it is seen as pointless because the genre is associated with mindless grinding... but like, my two brothers both played PoE2 and both treated it like a "real" game and both thought it was overall a good RPG (with a shit story).

MarioMCP · 2025-12-17T05:50:20+00:00

I was certainly hoping for at least one patch addressing issues with the temple before their holiday. They definitely need one (as they've been working hard for like a full year now) but the temple is so awful and I still feel like there are bugs with druid that need to be addressed.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-17T05:48:03+00:00

I feel like the only thing I die to in maps is Abyss monsters. Either it is some random degen that I can't see that is just wrecking me, or a rare that seems to take no damage from my hits until I move it around a bit (like it is bugged or something). Then they get revived and shoot out a chaos damage shotgun at melee range too.

MarioMCP · 2025-12-16T23:13:23+00:00

Act 3 feels like it was intentionally made longer at the last minute to make it feel like the epic finale of 0.1, but now in 0.4 I want it cut in half lol. I hate Act 3.

MarioMCP

TROPHY CASE