Archmage Build: Strongest Axe Crafting and Mechanics Explained

This Archmage build excels with powerful spells, efficient mana recovery, and robust defenses, making it a top contender this patch.

### " Arc Mage Pseudo Triple-CoC Hant: A Powerful and Versatile Build for the Current Patch"
* 💥  This build combines the power of **Ice Nova Hant** with a higher quality of life setup, better clear, smoother coverage, and even more AOE, enabled by the **new axe enchant that triggers a spell every 0.25 seconds**.
* 🔥  The key to this build is the **axe craft**, which involves using an Elder and Shaper axe base, reforging for specific mods, and then veiling to get the desired mods, ultimately culminating in a **powerful weapon** for the build.
* 🌲  The skill tree is fairly standard for an Arc Mage build, but includes unique choices such as using **Militant Faith** to convert a Sentinel node into a source of **elemental ailment immunity** on consecrated ground.
* 🧪  The skill gems setup includes **Volatile Dead, Detonate Dead, and Desecrate**, with a focus on **power charge generation for increased damage**, and a **Lancing Steel setup in the chest for additional utility**.
* 🛡️  The gear setup includes specific affixes to balance **resistances, attributes, and damage**, with a focus on achieving **ailment immunity** and **high elemental resistances**.
* 💰  The cost of the build is moderate, with some **expensive jewels and unique items required**, but it offers a **good balance of power and affordability** for most players.
* 📈  The build is expected to **scale well into end-game content**, with potential for **further improvements** as the character progresses and acquires more powerful items.
* 🏆  Overall, this build is seen as a **strong contender for one of the best builds** of the current patch, offering a good mix of **clear speed, survivability, and damage output**.

this archage pseudo triple coock hant is one of the pound-for-pound strongest HC viable bills this patch. It mirrors the build power of ice Nova hant but also goes for a higher qall setup, has better clear, smoother coverage, even more AOE, and is able to retain that one-button play style. This build is actually enabled by the new axe enchant, which allows you to trigger a spell once every .25 seconds, although it does need to be a fire spell. So, in my case, I use volatile dead of confinement and DD of chain. I also use a separate Caston crit setup in my chest with Lancing steel, allowing me to summon corpses through desecrate. So, effectively, I'm triggering three spells simultaneously, and my two damaging spells are on pseudo 7 links because of my ax craft and The Squire. Now, since my chest coock setup is almost entirely utility-based, I'm able to use the Mana Leach support, which is a huge Boom for this build, especially this patch where a lot of Arc Mage builds are.

actually struggling with Mana recovery. Mana leech sport does have enough damage, especially when it's paired with the instant leech Mastery, solving one of the crucial issues for our hant. This is even more significant for my build because I'm triggering so many spells at the same time, and then Lancing Steel's lingering hit Behavior allows you to have much more sustained uptime on bosses, better q, and also better sustained recovery. In many ways, I see this as the Q successor to AR Mage ice Sila or Arch Mage ball lightning as those hant League starters, and it has a really solid defensive shell, getting about 140,000 Max Elli hit, about 40K Max Fizz hit. It's got suppression cap, Elemental ailment immunity, stun immunity, high evasion, permanent consecrated ground, which means more regen, curse mitigation, and also triple-sourced instant leech. Before getting into the further details on the build, I really want to highlight one specific piece of technology that I've ironically stolen from Dan, but not from his build. This

league, but rather something he played back in Sanctum league. So, this particular militant faith is actually really special and actually converts Sentinel, a node on the tree that most Arc Mage horants usually don't want to touch, into cloer, which allows you to have elemental ailment immunity while on consecrated ground. Now, as far as the devotion threshold goes, I'm able to easily reach this because the Natural Instinct plays slightly above that in the S start area. And as far as getting consr ground generation, rather than using, say, Inquisitor Jewels or, I don't know, bottle of face, something inconsistent, I opt for rational Doctrine, and I'm able to reach the threshold for rational Doctrine by then tattooing a bunch of my intelligence noes into something else: lightning damage, liting res, crit damage reduction, poison chance, whatever you want, and then balancing my strength and intelligence. And this allows you to not only have consecrated ground but also profane ground. So, basically, this really clever combination of three Gs gives my build ailment

immunity, permanent consecrated ground, permanent profane ground, which means 10% increased curse effect, 100% increased Critical Strike chance, and this is not to mention the explicit bonuses from militant Faith itself with 200 votion, which include El Ras, which you need a ton of, especially when you want to be really offensive with suffixes, and also reduce Mana cost, which is even better the more you have of it. Anyways, let's get into axe craft and the build details. One of the things that I've been asked about most is how to actually craft the axe for this build, and basically, you want to probably just buy items, but let's say we're starting from scratch. So, I have a shaper Axe, and I have an elder axe. Let's do the Elder axe first. It's going to begin with a reforge crit until I hit the nodes that I actually want, and here I'm looking for ICD and crit multi. Ideally, you'd want to have that as a sole Elder-based mod, and then on this

side you want to do the same thing another reforge crit, and you're looking for IC this time, so increase critical strikes. We'll try to hit that with, um, I think, an attack crit, um, so that's right here. There are no other shap or mods on this, so now we're ready to go. And then from here on, I mean, ideally, you actually go for level 21, but I'm kind of lazy here, so you use an awakener orb, um, and we want to export here, export data, bam. So we want to awaken the two items, and bam, we have this. So at this stage, it's actually really, really not cool 'cause I'm trying to null the Fire Res, um, and that might not go so well, and it's going really, really, really poorly, um, but eventually, when you're able to do that, or if not, you restart the craft, or if not, you sell a base base, or if not, you could actually dense fossil spam on your double awakened base, but if you're lucky, then you'll n that

off. I think it's like a one and three roughly. You know, you have to deal with the prefixes as well, but then you have this base. And then from here, I usually go prefixes can't be or stff can't be changed rather um, which is over here, craft that. And then I actually lock this. And then I use a reforge spe. You can't use an augment, so I use a refor speed here. And you're praying that you don't hit Max prefixes and that you do hit IC local on on the suffix or rather IAS on the suffix. You could also reforge crit again um, but I would rather not do that um. And there you go, so it's a double crit increase attack speeds. From here, you would use a uh wild Bristol matron um. It's actually not here, but um that will actually force on suffix can't be change again. So we'll be using suffix can't be change a lot. So this stuff can't be changed and because I have these mods, I'll scour and then I want to

recraft stuff. This can be changed again, and then I'd want to Veil orb, and then I'd want to block increased physical damage on this. And basically, what you're looking for on the veiled orb is either lightning damage or spell damage. Either is fine. I prefer lightning damage, but here I get spell damage, Mana regen, bam. And then the end of The Craft is simply hits can't be evaded. Um, and that's pretty much the whole craft. Uh, this one, and that's a completed axe. So, those are all the steps. You can pick your axe of choice. You want to use 1.3 as base. Um, um, because the crit chance is always locked to five. Um, that kind of is what it is. That's the whole thing. Um, there's a bunch of failure points actually on it. You can see it goes, you know, kind of reasonably smoothly other than that first and all, which really sucks. The reforce speed can also kind of go wrong, but that's kind of what it is. And you can end with a slam. I

did hit the plus one stock the gems on my particular axe with the slam, but it's really unimportant because one, I'm Arc Mage, two, I'm cor space, so extra gem levels isn't really important. But we'll slam this just for [ __ ] and we got one to two insane anyways. That's ax craft hope that's there. Second thing, let's go over the build now. Um, this is a really cool build I really want to cover in a lot of different ways, so I'll start out with the tree 'cause it's fairly simple. Um, it looks pretty standard, a lot of archage trees go through here, but because I'm not element to overload, I'm actually going to go through the top side. One thing to note is that it's a pretty Jewel starve tree, however, there are two different three-point jewels to opt for here, and they're both really good since I am fairly attribute starved, especially when I'm playing for rational doin otherwise fairly standarded for Arch Mage tree. Um, I am playing the

inevitable judgment jewels. These are really expensive now. Um, I don't even think they're the best. I would personally right now be opting for righteous Providence, but I'm broke and can't really switch my jewels out. I don't really want to sell things. Augre is also okay. There's a few other options that can be kind of pseudo-acceptable. Um, but yeah, that's sort of what we're looking for. Um, probably between these two forbidden jewels, but you don't actually need either of them. It's definitely a playable build without it. And basically, the way I'd see it is Nal judgment is just a richer man's version of inversion Mastery. So, if you can't afford the GS, you can just take this, and that will pretty much do really, really similar things. It's what, like, Dan uses on his league start. Fairly standard tree otherwise. I do run a single cluster, and I prefer to play leech on here so that it opens up the implicit on my gloves, and I really

like that. I'm running double clusters for crit, really easy to craft, and then they just enable a bunch of je sockets. Later on, I'll probably look to be going right side, playing double cluster, but that's just what it is. I have already mentioned this Timeless gel set. I forgot that it also gives you inner conviction, so this Milton faith is actually crazy, crazy efficient. I do like this setup. I do like going for militant Faith, rational Doctrine, attribute balancing, and then just having all those things solved, even in my Mage blood setup for the later part of the game, which I won't be talking about yet because I want to iterate on, but it's pretty much a complete Mage blood build at this point. I think it's actually pretty well built. I still go for this core setup there. You can put it on other nodes. It doesn't need to be on Sentinel. It could be like here. It could be, you know, up here at exceptional performance, which is actually really nice, um, because then you can just have a little bit of skill effect duration leading in which

is helpful for the build because there are a lot of duration skills. Anyways, that's a tree. Second thing, skill gems. These are actually really cool. So in my main links, I run DD, chain, VD, and peacock. The reason I do this is because there's actually not a lot of strong support gems. So power charge on crit for my build, I think, is like 28% more damage. So that's pretty solid. And then the square, I run awaken L Focus. I do sacrifice shock because I don't think it's probably that consistent, but it might be better to not use ARC Mage. And then inspiration, I think the next best support is probably like cruelty. Lightning pen isn't good because I'm playing inevitable judgment. But if I wasn't playing inevitable judgment and I was playing in virgin Mastery, lightning pen is actually really good as a support. So there's that. In my boots, I run Arcane cloak and automation. I make sure this isn't linked to frost blink and then I manually cast assassin's Mark. It's the only manual

cast a thing I do on this as far as damage output goes. My chest runs a Lancing steel setup. So one thing I'm not sure about still is whether or not I want to run spell Cascade. Um, um, I have bad feelings about spell Cascade with death crate. Um, especially when I don't have Undertaker. Uh, 'cause I do think it interacts kind of weirdly with DD chains, that sort of sequential detonate dead thing. I wonder if it gets just ended sometimes. There aren't corpses, so I prefer to play with this setup for now. And you know, the damage is pretty consistent. Obviously, I want to level my gems up more, and I'm kind of just starting this out by doing ICS faster attacks, man Le, and awaken [ __ ]. So faster attacks isn't actually mandatory in this. Um, it just makes the skill feel a lot better. And there's a lot of other things that this could swap into that are all great for utility, including things like life gain on hit, um, possibly spell Cascade, um, culling strike, um, even your

assassin smart can actually live here or one of your other curses instead, so you can actually automate that as well. Um, and because you're playing laning steel, you're not actually worried about the trigger rate in the helmet. I go for something pretty classic. I go for a focus trigger setup, so you can see that crafted mod here, which means that even though I have four spells and relatively low cast speed on this build, I can just press focus and instantly proc both curses and both area skills, which is really great. Again, to not your conditional defenses, it's an Arkam mage build, so everything is conditional, but you know, it's kind of there. It's really important that you play with it. Finally, Shield charge, faster attacks, internal blessing, Grace. If you don't care about defense, skip Grace, but you're kind of trolling if you do that. Gear-wise, and this is where it gets fun, I've mentioned how to do the ax craft, and again, this fire spell on hit is a global cooldown. Um, it's per spell, sorry, it's

not a globalist. Cool down, that's what I meant. It's actually per spell. So basically, having two different spells being triggered at the same time is totally fine. It's just at the loss of one support, but it's super worth it, especially when I'm using VD of confinement, which has really, really, really high damage thickness at 210. It's way stronger than, like, you know, VDC. And then DD chain is insane. And both skills are actually just really great in this particular setup from this Axe and for Arc Mage in general because DD chain hits eight times up to, and VD seething hits three times, except that gets doubled because they both have a Spell portion and a course portion. And both of those things are affected by Arc Mage, which is why I have my config set up the way that it is. Account for attack speed, cast speed, that sort of thing. Squire and my secondary is what it is. My helmet looking for life. I bought this one straight off of trade.

dexterity um is sort of the main stat that's going to be lacking the most. And then I do play a little bit of Elemental shift on my helmet. I also look for Elemental shift on my chest, that 10% Fizz taken as cold, and then Max res. This was a random dense fossil chest. I've since recraft a different chest, which I'm not using yet, using fracture suppression, then dense fossils. But this was pretty lucky um. And then I actually don't need that Elemental ailment immunity, but I am using that avoid stun because it gets me to 98% covoid, which is you know really really good gloves. I like Alpha gloves. I think that damage with hits against chill enemies is really great, even though I'm not using Dan's other Tech, which is to grab this plus um the Mastery here, these uh that Min 10%, and then having a little bit of coal damage um. Frost shield does actually apply chill, so that's fairly good. And then you know T1 cold res. I'm using suppression unnerve is lower value.

for this build because one I'm using punishment and then two unnerve doesn't affect the corpse portion damage of archage um but I think gloves like this later on and then paired with damage all leeching will be really strong really fun craft to you later um but early on this is that and then for boots I'm running CR cuz there is no downside and then it avoids Sun implicit looking for res suppression Mana life that sort of thing foyble as an amulet of choice so this is actually really great because it makes your attributes really easy to hit especially when you using like necrotic armor later on again this wants to become I think a focus amulet but that's a really expensive craft foyble will be what you're playing at until you're roughly approaching the two to three mirror um budget and then I'm using one of my really big Rings um to cap res but I'm overcapped on res which is quite nice uh just reforge chaos on a

fractured base benchcrafted Mana would actually be better at this point. Anatha is really strong. It enables my, I think, Tri curse setup. Yeah, punishment and feeble as Mark instead of having to grab Whispers of Doom. So, it's basically a plus two curse ring um that also gives you just like a little bit of int and Es and then a belt with CDR chaos res Mana strength. So, attributes are sort of the name of the game. A lot of my resz is generally fixed because this milon faith is so cool. And you could also help AER if I really want it. And I also have a twoo for Faith and steel holy Dominion. There's just a lot of all res on this build that makes it really easy to gear. Actually, my flasks, I only know one of them, which is that I like to play with a flask charge on crit generation. Diamond flask only. This is a global cooldown, and if it's on multiple flasks, it'll actually split your flask generation. I

find that the diamond flask is the only one that's really important because that's my damage up time on bosses. Everything else is more like utility or like mapping focused. Um, so that is what it is. But I do like to play with one life last for CB Watchers eye great suppression. It's actually a tube mod but obviously I don't run Clarity right now because I'm too socket starved and I haven't really thought about how I want to fit arog against Clarity into my build. But if I could, this would be a really great Watcher eye but one prop for now. A Natty is going to be fitting down here which I've already mentioned paired with the militant down here and one point inner conviction large cluster leech inspired depression back note is Prismatic heart. I'm not taking it and then two different crit clusters for pressure points and C geta away. Good for Q, good for your crit chance, decent for your damage and then really nice to get a little bit of extra.

movement speed rational Doctrine um is Again part of that three jeel interaction I outlined earlier, and then running the Forbidden set for inevitable judgment, though I don't think that's optimal. Finally, um running just a very jeel up here, there's a lot of options actually here. This could be like a thread of Hope medium and a medium thread hits Arcane will breath of lightning and heart of thunder, and I do want to use that especially when I switch forbidden Jewels because these two NOS become crazy with that. It can also be healthy mind, which is really, really high value, gives you more Mana, more damage, but also gives you more es because of sanctuary of thoughts conversion from Mana into es, which I think is your primary layer when I'm mapping. I don't go below my energy Shield. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of actually taking more than 2,000 damage, and frankly, I almost never do, especially with instant Lee. But for now, this rare G is really strong because honestly, I have so low multi base um. I'm

at well actually I'm higher than this. I think I'm at like, yeah, 433 multi. Um, oh, I guess it goes up later. But yeah, so having this sort of two prop multi is actually fairly significant. 7.4 for a single JE is actually pretty solid. The all res is nice. The attack speed is nice. Just a budget option for now. So yeah, I think that's most of the build as covered. Um, it's obvious got a few more levels in it now and I think it's got really great potential. I do think that you will probably get more damage if you're playing pure Arcanist brand ice Nova right now because self-casting with ice Nova is just so incredibly powerful. But I think this build is actually very comparable in power. Doesn't require that gem saw for Arcanist brand and I think at the later end once I go into that Mage blood setup towards probably the end of this week as I farm more for it, it will be one of the strongest builds this patch. Um, at like that sort of

smooth progression level. It won't quite compare with like the super high-end things. I think you know the sort of WDO farmers or even that sort of strength stack Mol strike stuff. But it's a build that I'm really proud of stealing and putting my own twist on it and turning into I think probably the build I'll be playing the most for this league.

ManaCoC VD/DD Archmage Hierophant Build Guide [Path of Exile 3.25]

jungroan

Powerful HC Viable Build: Archage Pseudo Triple Coock Hant

This build is one of the strongest HC viable options this patch, offering higher clear, smoother coverage, and more AOE compared to the Ice Nova hant.

It utilizes a new axe enchant to trigger spells every .

25 seconds, while also implementing a Caston crit setup for corpse summoning.

The build features a solid defensive shell, with max hit points, elemental ailment immunity, and permanent consecrated ground for regen and curse mitigation.

Crafting a Double Crit Axe and Build Overview

The crafting process for the axe involves increasing critical strikes, using an awakener orb, and nulling Fire Resistance.

The strategy includes locking prefixes, using reforge and veil orbs, and aiming for specific mods like lightning or spell damage.

The build tree is standard for Arch Mage, with a focus on jewel sockets for attribute needs and a unique path due to the lack of elemental overload.

Building a Cost-Effective Character in the Game

The inevitable judgment jewels are currently expensive, but there are alternative options like righteous Providence and Augre.

The build is playable without the forbidden jewels, with Nal judgment serving as a cheaper alternative to inversion Mastery.

The skill gem setup includes DD, chain, VD, and peacock, with a focus on power charge on crit for increased damage.

Automating Curses and Maximizing Damage in Arc Mage Build

The build uses a focus trigger setup to automate curses and area skills, compensating for low cast speed.

It features a unique gear strategy, with two different spells being triggered simultaneously for maximum damage.

The helmet and chest are crafted for essential stats, while gloves provide damage against chilled enemies, contributing to the overall effectiveness of the build.

The build focuses on using punishment and unnerve for damage, with a strong emphasis on leeching and attribute stacking.

Key gear includes CR boots for res suppression, a foyble amulet for easy attribute hitting, and a ring for overcapping res.

The flask setup prioritizes crit generation and damage uptime, while the skill tree includes a tri-curse setup and crit clusters for increased damage and crit chance.

The build focuses on movement speed and jewel interactions, with a strong emphasis on energy shield for damage mitigation.

Key jewels provide significant bonuses to mana, damage, and energy shield, while the rare jewel offers important multipliers and resistances.

The build aims for a smooth progression, with the potential to become one of the strongest setups by the end of the week.