The Siege of the Atlas expansion consolidated the old regional Atlas passive trees into one massive tree that affects your entire Atlas. This new tree offers more options than ever to shape your content experience based on what you enjoy playing. A player earns an Atlas passive tree point for every map tier they complete, up to a maximum of 117 points. Completing all the bonus objectives for a tier of maps will also grant you another point.
Passive Skill Tree
Passive skills are a huge web of bonuses that affect monsters, loot, and league mechanics in Path of Exile. They can be accessed by completing The Maven questline and clearing the Temple of Atzoatl, and by acquiring Atlas Keystones. The newest Atlas passive tree has even more options, and the new league expansion introduced additional keystones and nodes that make it easier to avoid content your character isn’t interested in.
The early Siege of the Atlas expansion consolidated the Atlas region trees into one massive, complex passive skill tree. It now offers a massive amount of customization and even features Keystones that unlock Uber Pinnacle Bosses, level 85 versions of Path of Exile endgame bosses with unique loot and abilities.
Essence Tree
Despite being an old league mechanic, the Temple of Atzoatl continues to provide one of the best ways to acquire currency in Path of Exile. This PoE 3.21 optimized Atlas tree strategy is based around maximizing the amount of red altars you can farm and taking advantage of newer League passives to increase the number of voidstones dropped. It starts with the traditional league opener setup of Essence Drain and adds in the new Stream of Consciousness node to give maps a 50% base chance to contain extra content. From there, you prioritize the map sustain nodes to make gearing & progression easier during the early days of the league.
After that, you take a bit of the new passive tree which gives a boost to all damage and movement speed stats while picking up a ton of resistance. This way you get a good mix of flat damage and acceptable resistance to reduce the need to spend a lot on crafted items later in the build.
Bossing Tree
This tree focuses on picking up Wrath of the Cosmos and Legion encounters for currency. It also offers some of the best endgame min maxing options for items such as Rusted Abyss Scarab and Stygian Vise.
This is a great option for players who want to make some early league money. It offers lots of map nodes, Kirac wheel nodes and Essences that help to maximize voidstone generation. It isn’t the most optimal in terms of currency but it is a good way to start the league.
Players can decide which Atlas map tiers to run based on their build, gear and personal preference. However, some tiers are more challenging than others and offer better rewards. The key is to find a balance between mapping mechanics and endgame content. There is no right or wrong answer, so it’s important to focus on what you enjoy and stick with it. This is especially true in the early stages of the game when you have many options to choose from.
Shrine Tree
After completing Kirac's quest and defeating endgame bosses, players receive Atlas tree points that can be used to restyle their character. These investment points can be refunded at any time for an Orb of Unmaking. They can also be exchanged for spheres of destruction, which are dropped by enemies and can be purchased from Kirac for the price of two poe currency guide of Regret.
Taking a shrine tree is a good option for early-game mapping because it provides an excellent amount of currency and progression. This option takes advantage of the blighted map mechanic, which rewards players with a large amount of currency for destroying spawned objects. It also picks up Essence nodes, strongbox nodes, and contracts to provide a steady stream of income.
Another important aspect of the shrine tree is its tier boosts, which increase the tier of maps that drop in the Atlas. This is important because it allows players to skip over low-tier maps and focus on more valuable ones.