Atlas Passive Skill Tree Strategies Guide

Introduction

Since the release of Necropolis, we were yet again amazed by a mind-boggling Passive Tree to learn and incorporate into our endgame strategies. For newer players, this may be just as overwhelming as first pressing the level-up button when progressing through the Twilight Strand.

While this is not an exhaustive list of all of the different combinations of mechanics, these are some of our favourites for a variety of gameplay strategies.

As every node related to map sustain has been reworked, we cannot in advance predict how map sustain will feel. The rework to the atlas offers players an unprecedented ability to manipulate their atlas to contain exactly whatever they want it to and focus only on those mechanics.
As a result, we heavily recommend you open the atlas planner and look at it, as your preferences may differ from ours.
We will provide some suggested trees for players to look at and possibly follow, combining mechanics we feel fit well together. You should by no means feel like you have to do what we do, and you should feel free to experiment. We do however recommend you include at least some map sustain.

Early Atlas Progression

As a baseline, when beginning your Atlas journey, we highly recommend optimising the amount of higher-tier maps you gain to force your progression up as efficiently as possible. This type of setup doesn’t require many nodes and can be easily converted to your desired strategy later on with minimal effort.
This tree cuts off relatively early and lets you branch out to the mechanic of your choice.

This atlas likely overloads on map sustain. You probably will not need quite this much map sustain, but with this, you should have at least enough. Atroz is doing this himself, as he prefers not to think about the league start. It is likely not the most effective way of progressing map tiers, but as previously stated, it should have all the map sustain.

“Overloaded sustain: https://poeplanner.com/a/6du8
For the newest players, we have broken this tree into steps for how we suggest you progress it.

Rush Unwavering: https://poeplanner.com/a/66bg
Grab Remaining sustain: https://poeplanner.com/a/66f7

Atroz’s lazy farm – Expedition/Shrines/Blue Altars

This atlas focuses on juicing Expedition
Expedition is best suited for either attack builds or raw dot builds, as they are the only ones that can circumvent the block stacking Expedition is capable of.

Atroz’s lazy farm: https://poeplanner.com/a/6deN

Scarabs;
1X Expedition Scarab of Infusion – New this league, causes all logbooks to always drop with 4 modifiers, but also makes the map expedition harder and more rewarding.
1X Expedition Scarab of Verisium Powder – Bigger explosions
2X Expedition Scarab of Runefinding – More Runic Markers. Effectively, more loot.
I would suggest you avoid running Expedition Scarab of Archaeology, as it will make the maps incredibly deadly. I have nicknamed this thing the self-deletion scarab, and that’s not for no reason.

Heist/Ritual/Red Altars

The name of the game here is speed. Get in, loot everything, get out. Ritual should pair well with the Mirage mechanic, red altars are pretty passive bubblegum income, and so is Heist.

HRR: https://poeplanner.com/a/6d0N

Scarabs:
2x Ritual Scarab of Selectiveness – more rerolls are good. Free rerolls are even better.
2x Ritual Scarab of Abundance – More tribute is good. This can be pricy, so depending on popularity, you might cut this. Impossible to say in advance.
New scarab, Ritual Scarab of Corpses, will grant us more corpses. On paper, this is predicted to be good.

Blight/Beast/Incursion/Red Altars

BBIR: https://poeplanner.com/a/6deW

Scarabs:
2x Bestiary Scarab of the Herd. These should be cheap; if they are not, consider skipping them.
Duplicating is always Pricy, probably skip it.
Blight Scarab of Blooming is an option if it’s not too expensive.
Probably just stick sacrifice fragments in the divice for quant, tbh.

Legion/Beyond/Red Altars

LBR: https://poeplanner.com/a/6deB

Scarabs:
1x Beyond Scarab of Resurgence – spawns the other two bosses when you spawn a boss. This might be rippy for weaker characters, so keep that in mind.
1x Legion Scarab of Treasures – Spreads chest rewards
1x Legion Scarab of Officers – more sergeants means more rewards
Eternal Conflict is likely both too expensive and makes things too hard. That’s a call you’ll have to make, but be cautious of this one.
Sacrifice fragments for quantity are, as always, an option.

Oops, all map bosses

Destructive play + Jun + Shrines. The Speedbossing bread and butter. There are enough points leftover to include a mechanic if you want.
Feel free to replace Shrines, or Jun for that matter, if you want to do your atlas differently. Just keep the boss nodes or it’s meaningless.

Oops: https://poeplanner.com/a/6de-

80% Deli farm

This requires scarabs, and it requires delirium orbs. Do not attempt this without either; it simply doesn’t function.
Lost Shipments are not worth picking up; all it does is remove ore spawns.
Ore deposits have the added benefit of being the new thing to hoard for Kingsmarch shipments, if that’s a thing you’re into.

Investment: Low to Medium

Deli: https://poeplanner.com/a/6QED
Map: Dunes
Scarabs: 2x Delirium Scarab of Mania and 3x Delirium Scarab of Paranoia
Orbs: 4x Fine Delirium Orb (Currency) or 4x Diviner’s Delirium Orb (Stacked Decks).
The Ore nodes are here to spawn more mobs. We’re taking Virisium because it spawns the most mobs, and Verisium being present means the crater can spawn, so that we can fish for Svalin drops.
Skittering orbs exist and are technically higher average profit. It’s more expensive and requires more understanding of bulk selling metrics to be truly profitable. Thus, not recommended for most guide readers.

Questions?

To guarantee that my guides are tools you can utilise to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, I welcome feedback. Should you have any questions, head over to the ARPG-Vault Discord, and the moderators will assist you as soon as they can.

Final Notes

As much as I love making guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. With that said, if you’ve made any tweaks to the trees compared to what I’m showing in this guide, I would love it if you shared them on the stream!