If you’re tired of playing Path of Exile 2 the way it is, patch 0.3.0 has something for you. One of the highlights of this major update is the addition of a new league, Rise of the Abyssal, which introduces Abyss mechanic to POE 2 in a completely new way.
In this new chapter, players will encounter a variety of fissures and powerful bosses from the very beginning. The goal is to kill enemies as quickly as possible and close these fissures.
With the arrival of new boss fights, the boss’s unique drops are of course even more noteworthy. After all, the loot dropped by each Pinnacle boss almost always makes a splash in Path of Exile 2, with examples like Ingenuity Utility Belt from The King in the Mists, Skin of the Loyal Garment from Xesht, and Last Flame Incense Relic from Zarokh.
These unique drops are highly sought after by players because of their powerful effects and exceptional rarity, making them popular choices for endgame builds and trading. Sometimes, a single popular item can be worth hundreds of PoE 2 Divine Orbs.
Here, POECurrency.com introduces a new unique item dropped by a dedicated boss in Patch 0.3.0. However, fans of the original game will probably be familiar with this item; it’s actually a returning unique belt from PoE 1, Darkness Enthroned.
How Can I Obtain It?
Darkness Enthroned has limited locations and methods for dropping in The Third Edict. It cannot be dropped randomly, but only by Abyssal bosses.
Abyssal bosses are the primary enemies you’ll encounter in Rise of the Abyssal League. Unlike ordinary monsters, these bosses grow in power as they fissure monsters. Larger and more dangerous monsters also spawn here, with hordes of Abyssal monsters erupting from pits, where your soul can be lost if you’re not careful.
Furthermore, defeating these Abyssal bosses doesn’t guarantee an immediate drop of Darkness Enthroned, requiring a protracted battle. However, if you’d rather avoid the hassle of farming, POECurrency.com offers a solution. We are a trading shop that has been operating for many years and can provide all players with a variety of currency items and boosting services. Whether you need to buy POE 2 currency or want help from professional players, we can provide you with it!
How Does It Work?
Honestly, this item is pretty polarizing, but I personally find its specific mechanics quite powerful. So, let’s first discuss how it works.
Darkness Enthroned Belt has two Abyssal Sockets, which you can place socketable items in, including Runes and Soul Cores, as well as Talismans (new in patch 0.2.0) and Abyssal Eyes (introduced with this update).
However, belts typically don’t have sockets, which means they can’t receive modifiers from socketable items. Therefore, Darkness Enthroned Belt can drop specific armor types, and then it functions as a piece of gear of that type, receiving modifiers from the socketable items placed on it.
So far, we know that Darkness Enthroned Belt can have helmet and body armor modifiers, but I imagine glove and boot modifiers are also possible. However, I’m less sure about weapons, off-hand gear, and other gear, as they’re much more specific. For example, some socketable items only work with certain weapon types, not just any weapon.
Modifiers
In addition to being a socketable item, Darkness Enthroned now also boosts the modifiers of those items.
This belt has the same modifier range as the item in PoE 1: a (50-100)% increased effect of socketed Abyss Jewels. This means that if you can invest more PoE 2 currency to bring the modifier up to a perfect 100%, you’ll get double the effect from these socketable items.
Exceptional Bases Dramatically Boost Gear Stats
That being said, I think the true power of Darkness Enthroned lies not in the types of stats it grants, but in the total amount of a single stat you can grant. This is precisely what makes this new unique belt a game-changer in certain situations.
More importantly, another new feature in Patch 0.3.0 will also contribute to this: Exceptional Bases. These new bases will drop items with a maximum quality of 30% or an additional socket. Note that even with an additional socket, the item can still be corrupted to gain another additional socket.
Thus, compared to the previous patch, you can now gain an additional socket on your gear. Combined with Darkness Enthroned, you can now gain a ton of stats that were previously difficult to obtain in large quantities.
For example, a minion player can increase their minion skill reserve efficiency by 8% by placing the new Talisman of Ralakesh in their helmet.
Taken alone, this is pretty good. But if you take it to the extreme, the effects can be quite astonishing.
If you socket three of these in a helmet and socket two Darkness Enthroned in the helmet, you can increase minion skill reserve efficiency by up to 56%. Combined with a good roll on Darkness Enthroned and corruption, the boost can be even higher.
Admittedly, this comes at a considerable cost, as it takes up all your helmet and belt slots, but it does increase minion reserve efficiency. So, rest assured, more orbs invested here is definitely worth it!
Darkness Enthroned And Talisman of Grold’s Empower Synergy
Now, let’s discuss the potentially game-breaking skill Darkness Enthroned brings.
As we all know, Talisman of Grold was added to the game in the previous patch 0.2.0, which provides a unique stat that gives empowered attacks a chance to not count against your attack count.
So, essentially, if this chance roll succeeds, your attack will not only be empowered, but it will not consume any empowered charges on your skill. Empowered attacks include buffs from Warcries, Barrage skills, bonuses from Emergency Reload, and Mantra of Destruction, among others.
Now, if you can increase this chance roll to 100%, you can perform unlimited empowered attacks, something that was nearly impossible before Patch 0.3.0. But now, with the gloves version of Darkness Enthroned, you can do it.
This belt inherently grants a maximum roll chance of 60%, and the three glove slots add an additional 45% chance, meaning every attack is empowered, and the empower charge never runs out!
Given the increased empower attack power across different builds, I think this belt will be very powerful in PoE 2 patch 0.3.0.
Runes And Soul Cores
Finally, let’s discuss the slot options on this Darkness Enthroned belt: Runes and Soul Cores.
Soul Cores increase the speed of Recoup by 10%. Now, I think Recoup is a truly excellent mechanic worth investing in. For example, using Sacrosanctum on a Chronomancer can be very effective when you’re able to accumulate a lot of Recoup.
But one reason Recoup is rarely used outside of Chronomancer is that it has a base window of 8 seconds.
For Runes, when it is embedded in a helmet, it can increase Exposure effect by 20%.
The reason we want to mention Runes is because of Incinerate mechanism in POE 2. Incinerate was changed in the 0.3.0 patch. This skill will cause a continuous Exposure effect, and its maximum Exposure value will be marked on the skill in the form of a gem attribute.
Increasing Exposure further reduces enemy elemental resistances, exceeding the base effect, thereby dealing more damage. Exposure effects stack with other similar effects and multiply the final Exposure value.
Notably, in 0.3.0, Frost Bomb also provides a similar continuous Exposure effect, with its maximum Exposure value similarly listed on the gem. If Frost Bomb’s effect is the same as Incinerate’s, you can adjust the maximum Exposure value by modifying Exposure effect.
Given the powerful Exposure effects Runes can provide when combined with the passive skill tree and other skills, you can reach some crazy numbers. It sounds ridiculous, but it seems like it might actually work!
That’s all for the new Darkness Enthroned unique belt in PoE 2 patch 0.3.0. Objectively speaking, the belt’s base stats aren’t particularly impressive, and if you’re only using it in conventional ways, like gaining extra slots or resistances, you might not be realizing its full potential. Instead, the synergy this unique item offers with other gear is truly remarkable, boosting specific stats to previously unattainable levels. It’s insane!
