A little bit confused. you have 1 pob and many trees in that. So trying to figure out which one of those trees is the budget one.
Is it "Crit poison Hoa cheap 5 passive" ?
Or is it "Tanky" ?
Yes, it needs a clean-up again.
The recommended best optimized tree is the 'landing' tree, the tree which pops up when you open or import the Pob.
It's titled:
"Final Items: Crit-HoA"
There are more trees like levelling trees, or the "Tanky" tree also. Combinate them always with the pairing skills and items-tabs.
Because the 290M DPS are not often helpful in poe, balancing dps above 50M instead into tankyness (3 passives es-mastery written in blood and doubles es of helmet, more small clusters skill efficiency for the aura flesh and stone, more +2 cold-resi-jewels) is a great choice too and often more fun.
I personally choose most often skills and gear around 50-70M damage and balance capacity above into tankyness and qol. In average around 400-700k ehp and in t17 around 85% ele-resis the build starts feeling tanky and almost immortal. So my tree and skills are often more close to the "Tanky" tree.
In 3.26 this will be quite more easy with the defensive curse enfeeble, malevolence, recovery and an additional aura triggered by the companions.
mmm ok. i think i understand now. Had to click around a lot for it to click in. Usually i am used to think when gearing up, i start with low budget --> mid budget --> high budget --> end gear expensive items. etc etc
First of all, congratulations on the formatting and the level of detail in your post — I really appreciate well-written content, and I believe work like yours truly deserves recognition!
That said, I have to be honest: your build presentation feels a bit like a sales pitch. It gives the impression that it's a "perfect" or "miracle" build — and now it’s even been buffed?
That’s exactly what worries me. You're saying that with just 40 divines, your setup can reach levels of DPS and eHP that most top-tier builds only achieve with three times that investment. I really hope you're right.
I'm currently undecided between Bama, VFOS, or HoA for 3.26. My focus this league will be juiced Essence farming, and as you know, some Imprisoned Monsters feel like actual mini-Ubers — massive life pools, regen, and one-shot mechanics.
So I’m looking for a build that can handle T17s, take hits from juiced Essence monsters, and ideally have high movement speed to rush through maps efficiently.
Which ascendancy would you recommend for this goal?
Side note: I played HoA many years ago, but I don’t remember much — I just recall the gameplay felt a bit clunky. The damage wasn’t always consistent, and managing the build felt a bit overwhelming at the time.
Has the build become more streamlined nowadays? Or is it still something more advanced that requires pressing multiple buttons in the right timing, micromanagement, etc.?
Thanks in advance for your time — and again, great work on the guide!
First of all, congratulations on the formatting and the level of detail in your post — I really appreciate well-written content, and I believe work like yours truly deserves recognition!
That said, I have to be honest: your build presentation feels a bit like a sales pitch. It gives the impression that it's a "perfect" or "miracle" build — and now it’s even been buffed?
That’s exactly what worries me. You're saying that with just 40 divines, your setup can reach levels of DPS and eHP that most top-tier builds only achieve with three times that investment. I really hope you're right.
I'm currently undecided between Bama, VFOS, or HoA for 3.26. My focus this league will be juiced Essence farming, and as you know, some Imprisoned Monsters feel like actual mini-Ubers — massive life pools, regen, and one-shot mechanics.
So I’m looking for a build that can handle T17s, take hits from juiced Essence monsters, and ideally have high movement speed to rush through maps efficiently.
Which ascendancy would you recommend for this goal?
Side note: I played HoA many years ago, but I don’t remember much — I just recall the gameplay felt a bit clunky. The damage wasn’t always consistent, and managing the build felt a bit overwhelming at the time.
Has the build become more streamlined nowadays? Or is it still something more advanced that requires pressing multiple buttons in the right timing, micromanagement, etc.?
Thanks in advance for your time — and again, great work on the guide!
Thank you a lot too Ikarus!
Yes, HoA-virulences cyclone-trigger turned in 3.24 much smoother as before the storm burst-trigger.
Overall HoA is a 1-button playstyle. Cyclone and everything dies and almost all utility is autotriggered.
Damage above 50M is not often needed and can be exchanged against further more qol and tankyness.
Cast the withering-flask and a curse on thougher enemies. Cast vaal discipline and flasks when there is much dot or not enough mobs around. Cast convocation against mobs in proximity shields.
When you farm Ubers you ramp up faster and more DPS with selfcasted 3 or 4 buttons/skills
Yes, of course I admire HoA, I love HoA, I prefer it to the other skills and minions which I played also. HoA was so many times buffed last leagues and is extremely flexible - in most points and most content I guess above gem-lvl 34 it's the meta-minion again since 3.24.
Against essences HoA is 10/10.
Only when your favourite maps are labyrinthine layouts like toxic sewers, alva temples, heists or sanctums HoA will not show his full potential of range.
Also some atlas-factors are not to foresee. As example in 3.23 Affliction many exiles farmed abyss and so there were totally b.i.s. 6-mod ghastly jewels cheap available in the market. In other leagues they were more rare. Instead other content was popular, i.e. b.i.s. ashes and b.i.s. watcher's eyes were cheap in 3.25.
And around the CI-transformation other skills are faster and a bit cheaper builded up. You will struggle when you not know how to get your first 1-2 div for aegis aurora or watcher's eye.
I tried to guide all ups and downs in "Pro / Con" and "ranking poe content".
And further HoA, poisonchances, clusters and auras are a bit more complex - for some Arachnophilias that's the fun, for others that's the problem.
Ordinary I recommend HoA-Trickster as No1 ascendancy - best in tankyness and more than enough damage for all content. All ascendancies are ranked in the spoiler "Which ascendancy?".
I wish best loot and atlas-secrets to you!
Editado por útlima vez por Chromino#4813 en 14 jun. 2025 8:57:15
First of all, congratulations on the formatting and the level of detail in your post — I really appreciate well-written content, and I believe work like yours truly deserves recognition!
That said, I have to be honest: your build presentation feels a bit like a sales pitch. It gives the impression that it's a "perfect" or "miracle" build — and now it’s even been buffed?
That’s exactly what worries me. You're saying that with just 40 divines, your setup can reach levels of DPS and eHP that most top-tier builds only achieve with three times that investment. I really hope you're right.
I'm currently undecided between Bama, VFOS, or HoA for 3.26. My focus this league will be juiced Essence farming, and as you know, some Imprisoned Monsters feel like actual mini-Ubers — massive life pools, regen, and one-shot mechanics.
So I’m looking for a build that can handle T17s, take hits from juiced Essence monsters, and ideally have high movement speed to rush through maps efficiently.
Which ascendancy would you recommend for this goal?
Side note: I played HoA many years ago, but I don’t remember much — I just recall the gameplay felt a bit clunky. The damage wasn’t always consistent, and managing the build felt a bit overwhelming at the time.
Has the build become more streamlined nowadays? Or is it still something more advanced that requires pressing multiple buttons in the right timing, micromanagement, etc.?
Thanks in advance for your time — and again, great work on the guide!
Thank you a lot too Ikarus!
Yes, HoA-virulences cyclone-trigger turned in 3.24 much smoother as before the storm burst-trigger.
Overall HoA is a 1-button playstyle. Cyclone and everything dies and almost all utility is autotriggered.
Damage above 50M is not often needed and can be exchanged against further more qol and tankyness.
Cast the withering-flask and a curse on thougher enemies. Cast vaal discipline and flasks when there is much dot or not enough mobs around. Cast convocation against mobs in proximity shields.
When you farm Ubers you ramp up faster and more DPS with selfcasted 3 or 4 buttons/skills
Yes, of course I admire HoA, I love HoA, I prefer it to the other skills and minions which I played also. HoA was so many times buffed last leagues and is extremely flexible - in most points and most content I guess above gem-lvl 34 it's the meta-minion again since 3.24.
Against essences HoA is 10/10.
Only when your favourite maps are labyrinthine layouts like toxic sewers, alva temples, heists or sanctums HoA will not show his full potential of range.
Also some atlas-factors are not to foresee. As example in 3.23 Affliction many exiles farmed abyss and so there were totally b.i.s. 6-mod ghastly jewels cheap available in the market. In other leagues they were more rare. Instead other content was popular, i.e. b.i.s. ashes and b.i.s. watcher's eyes were cheap in 3.25.
And around the CI-transformation other skills are faster and a bit cheaper builded up. You will struggle when you not know how to get your first 1-2 div for aegis aurora or watcher's eye.
I tried to guide all ups and downs in "Pro / Con" and "ranking poe content".
And further HoA, poisonchances, clusters and auras are a bit more complex - for some Arachnophilias that's the fun, for others that's the problem.
Ordinary I recommend HoA-Trickster as No1 ascendancy - best in tankyness and more than enough damage for all content. All ascendancies are ranked in the spoiler "Which ascendancy?".
I wish best loot and atlas-secrets to you!
Thank you for the detailed reply, this is gold for me! :)
I'm a bit confused in the PoB — I selected the "Leveling CI" tree, but I'm not quite sure which Skill Set and Item Set I should be using with it. Could you clarify that part?
Also, after I finish using the "Leveling CI" tree, which one should I go for next? That part got a bit confusing for me — there’s so much info and so many trees that I got lost, hahaha.
I followed this guide for this league, and I'm having a miserable time lol. I must be missing something, but I have low survivability and almost no damage.
