Path of Exile 1 News

What New Challenges Does Path Of Exile 3.26 Bound By Destiny Modifier Bring?
Miles Trek
Jul 14, 2025

In POE 3.25, the developers have made adjustments to the game's physical Damage Taken As modifiers. Purity Watcher's Eye modifiers have ushered in a new version, and physical strike damage taken as two elements instead of the previous corresponding elements.

For example, when the player is affected by Purity of Fire, 10% to 20% of Cold And Lightning damage will be taken as Fire.

Note that the scope of these modifiers is not just strike damage, but all damage. This adjustment has greatly weakened Fizz Taken As Setups, but don't be discouraged, because new defense settings have also been set.

When Divine Flesh, Font Of Thunder, Purity Of Lightning Watches Eye Modifiers are combined, all Fire and Cold Damage can be converted to Chaos or Thunder Damage.

In Secrets of the Atlas, there is a gem that is very similar to Watcher's Eye, which is Bound By Destiny. It can only be obtained from the three new Pinnacle bosses and is very rare.

What new challenges does Path Of Exile 3.26 Bound By Destiny Modifier bring?

When you defeat Pinnacle boss, other unprecedented rewards will also drop, such as powerful weapons and a large amount of POE Currency.

Bound by Destiny will randomly trigger three modifiers, each of which will only be triggered when a certain number of affected items of a specific type are equipped.

This modifier is powerful and applies to all elemental damage (including continuous damage), but the only drawback is that it needs to be affected by a specific aura to take effect, which has a trade-off mechanism.

To use this modifier, you need to equip four Hunter Influenced items, which may include Influenced items crafted with Awakener's Orb. In addition, you can also get influenced core drop unique items.

When a Unique is in the core drop pool and meets the conditions of being a Unique of that specific base type, the player can use an Omen of Fortune. However, there are some Divination Cards that are chosen from the random pool and will award Influenced Uniques.

Chaos Inoculation & Incandescent Heart

Path Of Exile 3.26 Chaos Inoculation & Incandescent Heart

Bound By Destiny Modifier damage does not bypass Energy Shield, and can be used with Chaos Inoculation to remove 10% of Elemental Damage as Chaos Damage, which is a very powerful effect.

Bound By Destiny Modifier and Incandescent Heart are also a great combination, 35% of Elemental Damage is removed from the calculation, leaving 65% as normal damage reduction, and there is no way to break the damage reduction mechanism.

Divine Flesh & Font of Thunder

Let's focus on the powerful Divine Flesh & Font of Thunder combination. At max check, with this modifier on, 60% of Elemental Damage you take is Chaos Damage, and 40% of Cold And Fire is converted to Lightning.

This is much better than using Purity Of Lightning Watches Eye Modifier, as you take more Chaos Damage, and Divine Flesh itself provides 5% additional Chaos Resistance.

Second, this also helps with Lightning Penetration, allowing you to avoid 60% of damage penetration, while avoiding all Fire and Cold Penetration.

Since most damage is taken as chaos, focus on Chaos Resistance, or use other methods to mitigate Chaos Damage.

My suggestion is stacking Born Of Chaos Clusters, or utilizing Doppelgänger Guise Unique Armor, or utilizing Fourth Vow, and you can also upgrade Soul Of Shikari Pantheon to reduce Chaos Damage by 5%.

However, be careful with Shock Modifier of Font Of Thunder. This can be solved with Shock Avoidance or Immunity, but that is only one setting enabled by this new Dual Modifier.

Divine Flesh & Flawed Refuge

Divine Flesh & Flawed Refuge can replace Font Of Thunder to perform the same function, making 40% of Elemental Damage be Taken As Physical Damage.

This combination is the nemesis of Elemental Penetration, you will be immune to it and will not be affected by any negative effects of Elemental Penetration and Shield.

One thing to note is that this modifier only applies to hits, which is different from Font Of Thunder. Therefore, for 40% of Elemental Damage without Damage taken as chaos, if it is continuous Elemental Damage, you will convert it to Elemental Damage normally.

However, you can still get some benefits from this Shield, such as when using Juggernaut, when other item combinations reach 100% damage taken, this Bound By Destiny Modifier will fill the gap before.

You May Like: Which One Can Go Further In Path Of Exile 3.26 Or Path Of Exile 2?

How To Complete The Low Budget Setup?

Due to the rarity of Purity Of Fire Sublime Vision, it is now expensive, and it may cost dozens of POE Divine Orbs to get it, which is not a good deal. However, it can still deal 100% damage without Purity Of Fire Sublime Vision, but 10% Taken As Chaos Damage.

Secondly, by using Tempered By War, Dawnreaker and Purity Of Fire Watchers Eye, and Bound By Destiny Modifier, 90% of cold and lightning damage can be converted to fire, and 10% Elemental Damage can be converted to Chaos. It also allows aura skills to get rid of Sublime Vision restrictions and reduce damage by 10% when using Bound By Destiny Modifier.

Similar to Font Of Thunder Setup, this combination can convert 60% of Elemental Damage to Chaos and 40% of Cold and Lightning Damage to Fire damage, which is more resistant to Fire Penetration than Tempered By War Setup, but may be more fragile.

How To Use These Setups?

Doppelgänger Guise, Fourth Vow and Juggernaut mentioned above are all perfect matches for Divine Flesh.

For example, Juggernaut can convert 15% of Armor into Chaos Damage it causes. When combined with Divine Flesh, the damage will bypass Energy Shield, and it can also reduce Physical Damage by 10% when Energy Shield is full (it is always full).

Of course, there are other combinations, such as Eldrich battery with Energy Shield, or Font of Thunder or Fire Setup, using Purity Aura and Atacking Maximum Resistance Jewels to increase the Resistance limit to 90%.

Bound By Destiny Modifier really adds a lot of diverse challenges to POE. It is powerful and can easily realize quite a lot of defensive formations. Although the concept may be a little complicated, I believe that players can gradually appreciate its charm in the process of exploring the function.

How Does The Pause System Function Work In Path Of Exile 3.26?
Donato Greenholt
Jul 11, 2025

POE 3.26 expansion returns with the expectation of many old players. The suspension of updates for more than ten months is indeed a heavy blow to the basic game, but fortunately, the developers have not given up completely. This unprecedented super update is a proof that they want to reproduce the glory of Wraeclast.

New Features Of 3.26 Update

Path Of Exile 3.26 is not only another new Atlas expansion after 3.17, but also brings a new Mercenaries of Trarthus challenge league. Of course, besides this, there are distorted memories, a new pinnacle boss, and a reworked item enhancement mechanism. Many changes are dazzling.

How Does The Pause System Function Work In Path Of Exile 3.26?

In addition to some changes in the league mechanism, the developers have not ignored the importance of quality of life functions. Yes, they have been paying attention to player feedback and finally realized it in the 3.26 expansion. One of the important changes is the addition of Pause System.

To be honest, many players have complained that they can’t stop fighting once they start the game. If there is any temporary work to be done in the middle, they may have to abandon the game and wait for death, which affects the gaming experience! However, now that the pause function has been added, this situation has become a thing of the past!

Pause System Function Explanation

As we said before, the addition of Pause System has been a long-standing call from players. It has not been added before because the limitations of the game copy and network structure have led to the implementation of the pause function is not always reasonable.

However, the presentation of Pause System in Path of Exile 2 allows developers to see the feasibility of adding this function to the original work. Although there are still certain limitations, it can indeed significantly improve the player’s gaming experience.

In fact, the working principle of this pause function is to put your full-screen operation in a paused state. In POE 3.26, you can pause by clicking Esc key. If you are a host player, you can also achieve the same purpose by opening the menu.

When you are fighting with the enemy, you can use this function to mark your behavior as paused. We say this because when you are playing a multiplayer game, each player must choose to pause the area, otherwise you need to manually press the pause button so that you don’t affect other players who are playing the game because of you alone.

Path of Exile 3.26 Pause System Explained

Advantages And Limitations Of Pause System Function

To be honest, the addition of this Pause function can not only ensure the fairness of the game under high latency, but also give players enough time to pay attention to the menu or respond to emergencies.

Imagine if you just spent a lot of time killing a boss, but before you had time to pick up POE currency and loot that fell on the ground, you were forced to quit because of network problems. Isn’t it infuriating?

So, in order to prevent this from happening, when the player is stuck in the network or disconnected, this function will be detected and paused at the first time, which greatly reduces the mortality rate of hardcore players.

In addition, this update sets a fault protection mechanism. When the player client is no longer communicating, the game will automatically pause the copy. It is fast enough. Even if it relies on dropped packets and frame rate issues, it cannot ensure the complete survival of the player, but it can still greatly reduce the risk of players losing game progress because of force majeure.

Path of Exile has always had a very harsh death penalty, and sometimes the cause of a character’s death may be just a minor mistake. For example, a momentary peak network latency may be fatal to former players. But now the application of Pause System in Path of Exile 2 shows the developer’s determination to create a fair game state as much as possible and allow players to maintain normal game progress in it.

However, this system currently has limitations. Only some bosses can be paused, such as the pinnacle boss. In a duel with a more challenging boss, players can directly press Esc key to view the opponent’s next skill or pause and dodge when it predicts, so as to increase the clearance rate. It is worth noting that players should avoid dodging when fighting with the boss.

However, in order to prevent players from seeking personal gain or even cheating, Pause System is disabled in the battle with the pinnacle boss. This provides players with the experience of game challenges while retaining the flexibility of the game.

This update not only retains the player’s gaming experience, but also amplifies the game’s multiple challenging features. This will continue to be the experience advantage gained by POE 3.26 after the early access release, and will take a step further towards future development goals.

Runegrafting In Path Of Exile 3.26 Brings More Flexible Configuration
Miles Trek
Jul 05, 2025

Settlers of Kalguur League became core components in Path of Exile 3.26, which led to some changes in Kingsmarch. One change is that Runegrafting replaces the rune runesmithing service in the previous league.

This new passive tree mechanic helps you replace some talents with new talents, and the experience is similar to Karui Tattoos in Settlers League.

Runegrafting In Path Of Exile 3.26 Brings More Flexible Configuration

Based on the significant game performance of Runegraft, this guide will explain how Runegraft works and how to get it.

How Does It Work?

As mentioned above, Karui Tattoos in Settlers League, players who have played Settlers League should know that Karui Tattoos will change Attribute nodes. Besides being used to modify Passive Skill Tree nodes, Runegrafting can also get significant benefits.

Passive Skill Tree nodes in Path of Exile are so large that you can create a variety of different combinations, each using a variety of passive nodes. Passive nodes fall into several categories, but Keystone Passives usually stand out the most when defining builds. Mind Over Matter, Chaos Inoculation, Blood Magic, Iron Reflexes, and Avatar of Fire are most recommended Keystone Passives.

Mind Over Matter

It stacks mana Regen, which reduces damage, and is one of the most popular nodes. Adding an Eldritch Battery can make up for the disadvantage of Mind Over Matter, making mana maintenance more difficult, so you can better maintain life.

Chaos Inoculation

It stacks energy shield, eliminating all direct damage to health, and is one of the most annoying damage types in the game.

Blood Magic

It stacks life Regen, building up health stacks.

Iron Reflexes

It easily stacks armor, converting all dodge points into armor points, thereby reducing damage.

Avatar Of Fire

It helps you reduce damage, converting half of all damage types except Chaos into fire damage. It also makes all your attacks deal additional fire damage.

That’s it for Passive Skill Tree nodes modified by Runegrafting in Path of Exile. Besides modifying Passive Skill Tree nodes and affecting Mastery nodes, some Runegrafting will provide various alternative buffs in the upcoming update, while others will modify certain properties.

A full list of Runegrafting is available in Path of Exile 3.26 patch notes, with the developer only showing Runegraft of Time, Runegraft of the Bound, Runegraft of the River, Runegraft of the Fortress, Runegraft of Bellows, and Runegraft of the Jeweler.

  • Runegraft of Time gives a skill a 20% chance of not consuming a cooldown when used, which reduces the time it takes to refresh a skill.
  • Runegraft of the Bound reduces the bonus of equipped boots, but increases the bonus of equipped gloves.
  • Runegraft of the River has a 1 in 5 chance of restoring the player to full health when health is low.
  • Runegraft of the Fortress reduces stats by one-tenth, but greatly increases global defense.

If the player has not warcried recently, Runegraft of Bellows will double the speed of warcriing.

When equipped with a two-handed weapon, Runegraft of the Jeweler increases damage by one-tenth for each unconnected slot. If the damage is maxed out, this extra tenth of damage will greatly increase the player’s chance of winning with one hit.

As we can see, Runegraft is still somewhat limited. Each Runegraft is limited to one, which may prevent players from stacking multiple Runegrafting of River to create an invincible character.

How To Obtain?

This new item can be got by transporting crops and ores to Kalgul Import Store, and is part of Kalgul Settlers’ transportation mechanic. However, Runegrafting is random, so it is best for players to save more items and trade with other players to get the required items. Players can also quickly trade items with others, but you should farm Path Of Exile Currency first.

The above is how Runegraft works and how to obtain it. I hope it can provide some help for your Path of Exile 3.26 game journey.

Do New Mercenaries In Path Of Exile 3.26 Are Much Stronger Than Players?
Cornell Otto
Jun 27, 2025

With the upgrade of mercenaries in Path Of Exile 3.26, many players have discovered that these mercenaries are far more powerful than they imagined.

The Emergence Of Powerful Mercenaries

New mercenaries have appeared in Path Of Exile 3.26. Compared to the mercenaries in Diablo IV, the mercenaries in PoE 3.26 are essentially NPC allies of the player, using all the same gear and items as the player. Under certain conditions and at a sufficient level, they are more powerful than the player: they are the warriors who tirelessly fight on the front lines to obtain more POE Divine Orbs, and also fight for the final victory.

Do New Mercenaries In Path Of Exile 3.26 Are Much Stronger Than Players?

This particular situation was deeply experienced by PoE streamer Pohx Kappa at the beginning of the new league. Although he used an AOE-based strategy, aiming to rush through all enemies and leave their smoking corpses, his mercenaries defeated all the monsters he could encounter before he even touched the enemy.

Pohx said that he couldn't hit anything during the game. He watched his mercenaries tirelessly destroying enemies on the screen with energy arrows, and lamented that he couldn't even blow up monsters. He felt that when he played PoE, he was just walking a chess simulation, without the opportunity to defeat the enemy by himself. The player is like an NPC in the game, lacking many scenes of his own battle.

The developers may have made the mercenaries in the game too powerful. A very specific example is that a streamer was accidentally one-tapped by a mercenary in hardcore. Before accepting a duel, you can browse their equipment, but some skill combinations may have the effect of excessive damage.

The Benefits Of Having Powerful Mercenaries

But if you have powerful mercenaries, the benefit is that you can not only greatly increase your chances of survival in a duel, but also explore the map more fearlessly with their company, thereby obtaining more rewards and more powerful equipment. Most experienced PoE players will enrich their Divine Orb and Chaos Orb reserves to equip their mercenaries with some auxiliary items, such as a weapon that can prevent elemental ailments from affecting your allies.

Path Of Exile 3.26: The Fight Taking With Mercenaries

How To Deal With This Unfair Situation?

However, since it is still the early stage of the league, many players have had such experiences. Maybe players will find more and more bad ways to match mercenaries in the future.

Pohx's bad experience obviously came from bringing mercenaries with him during the upgrade of a new character. As long as the player and his mercenary level do not exceed level 20, the player can always bring them with him. This is also why some players keep some mercenaries with them for quick upgrades later.

How the developers will balance the abilities of players and their mercenaries in the future is indeed a topic worth looking forward to. Of course, this ensures that they will not suddenly create new players to weaken them, so that you cannot randomly match with a stronger player than you, thus losing the challenge and fun of the game.

After all, no player wants a version where you are the auxiliary and your mercenary is the protagonist to complete all the tasks and battles.

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