Path of Exile | Looking At the Atlas Skill Tree

While there are still some assumptions to be made about how good a bunch of the new stuff will be on the Atlas skill tree. I at least want to give myself a rough outline of what I want. My Atlas skill tree is going to be a bit different in a few areas than I assume most will be.

While we know there are 128 total points to earn how many do I realistically think I can acquire? A good indicator I think is looking at my past performance. I took a look at some old screenshots of mine. While I’m sure I did slightly better than it I think it will put me in a ballpark range.

Old Atlas Map
We know the last league there were 118 bonus objectives. Since you get at least a point for finishing what I’m going to assume will be the bonus objective for the map and I completed 108 maps last league with 97 finishing the bonus objective. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a struggle to hit at least 105 of the 128 points this league for myself.

While it’s cool to look at the Atlas tree it’s a bit hard to understand what all you want to go after. Thankfully they put out a post that breaks everything down into different sections that make it a lot easier to understand what is on the Atlas skill tree.

While some might think about working out the min/max for profit. I’m more of the mindset that I have certain content I enjoy doing a lot more than other content in Path of Exile. I don’t want to be stuck dealing with stuff I hate all-league.

As such I want to get an idea of what my must-haves are. What would be nice to get. Along with what I want to avoid at all costs. This will also help me later on if I decided to change up what I want to do in this league. In case I decided I’m bored with boss farming and would rather clear maps.

it’s a good idea to understand what you want to do and the kinds of needs you are going to end up having. I plan to play a bossing character in trade league. While also doing things like Delve and early on some Heist missions.

I also know what I don’t like and have not run for many leagues now. I think it’s easier to go category by category and see what nodes I want to skip if at all possible.

While Abyss is cool if you want a bunch of extra monster spawns. I made next to nothing of it last league and I don’t care about going down into the abyss these days.

Bestiary I have over the years felt it annoying to run into. While there are some cool things you could farm from it it’s not something I ever cared about. This is also something you can’t just skip over if you don’t feel like doing them. Having my maps filled with these things I would rather avoid.

Betrayal still to this day causes me some slight lag on occasion. While it’s a lot better than it used to be. I’m willing to admit just about every league I skip over these. It is quicker to buy for server chaos an item with an enchant I want to unlock than trying to target farm for it for any small crafting needs that I might have.

Beyond is something I ended up ensuring I had on every map the last league once I was end game farming with a Headhunter. While I don’t have plans to do that again I’m not against getting some nodes if they end up on the way to something I want and I have spare points.

Blight is one of those that I have not run a single one in many leagues. This is something that lagged the daylights out of me back in the day. I barely recall how to even do them anymore. I find the oils to be rather annoying with how worthless most of them become quite quickly and my own needs for several of them are not going to be a huge deal to just buy.

Breaches are always something I’ve had a lot of fun doing. I’m not entirely sure how well the build I’m going with will be at clearing them out. This will be something I considered but could go either way on.

Delirium is one of those random events I just love seeing at the start of a map. I wish I had been around when they were a league and unless my clear speed is quite slow this is something these are something I’d be ok with picking up.

Delve is going to be a must-have for me since I plan on running many delves. Chances are I’ll even be running each map with a Delve scarab. I’m willing to admit a few of the nodes for it are somewhat lame and I wish they were better. However, getting more Sulphites on each map is a big deal to me.

Elderslayers since I’m going to be killing bosses has some importance to me. This is one of those where I care about getting the main node but I’m a bit indifferent about getting all of them. This would be something good to pair with that spawns in a lot of monsters into the map.

Essence oh essence. Outside of the start of the game where I do break them open for crafting rare items. I just don’t care for them much. If I was playing solo self-found which I’m not I could see a desire for them. I also do not have a stash premium tab for them so they can get annoying storing, selling, and sorting them.

Expeditions are yet another league I missed. I don’t have much experience with them as I hated seeing them last league when they took up a bunch of space in a Tower map. I more than likely will consider this to be another skip.

Harbinger can be fun but annoying. It’s not something you can just skip over easily if you run into one of these things. They also take a while to kill. If I have a bunch of leftover points depending on how many I can get I might consider this. If I end up switching my farming method this could be something I would for sure want to have.

Harvests are where I’m going to lose some respect if I had any at all to start with. I was not there for the league. I don’t understand them. While I know they are rather important for those who are heavy into crafting. I don’t tend to do a lot of crafting in the trade league.

Heists are something I consider doing early into maps. Is it something I could be doing two weeks into the league? I would hope I’d be good enough by then on basics currency and other things I use it for that I’d be done running them.

Incursions are yet another thing I have not done in many years. While they are cool if you want to try and double corrupt an item and get that room. I just never cared much for them.

Kirac is an unknown to me. I do think it will be a good way early on to be getting quite a few maps I’m missing. There is a lot that needs to be learned firsthand about how some of the new stuff is going to work.

Labyrinth is something I only do as needed. I have never once thought why don’t I go out of my way to run them for fun.

Legions are something I don’t mind running if I see them. I’m not quite sure how well my build would do them.

Map Boss nodes sound like something I would be going for. However, for it just being for map bossoes it’s not what I’m looking for. I also don’t know much about faded uniques and most uniques I already get are rather worthless after the leauge start

Map nodes early on that have an impact on getting higher tier map drops are going to be important. Later on, once I have to Delve up and going and I have a map sustain it might not be that important. This is a great way at the start to pick up several 15% chances for one-tier higher map drops.

Metamorph I don’t think I was around for and I don’t care much for either. This is kind of funny since Archnemesis league is going to have some similarities I just hope it will be better with the way it’s being implemented.

Rare Monsters might be something nice early on. I however hope to not be doing chaos recipes outside of the first weekend unless I’m struggling to get money.

Rituals I love these things. While I did not make a whole lot of them in the last league. I find then nice to have to break things up. They are also something that can be skipped.

Rogue Exiles can be quite annoying early on into maps. Once I have my character all set up I would expect a normal rouge to fall over dead just by looking at it. I do think however early on would be when I would want them for all their drops. Later when they are easy to kill I’m not sure how much value I’d get out of them.

Scarabs nodes sound cool. Since Sulphite ones tend to be quite cheap and I’m unsure I’d be running a lot of others scarabs with a boss-killing build. This is an easy skip for me early on. If things end up changing where I’m spending a lot on maps as I’m playing something different I could use myself wanting these.

Sextants are another easy skip over one for me unless I’m spending a lot and targeting farming a map where I’d even be using these. While they are giving a bonus for unique map bosses that is not that great for what I’m doing.

Shrines would be cool if I wanted more monster packs in a map. I don’t so not something I care for.

Strongboxes feel like it is great paired with some other things. Just not what I plan to be playing for.

Synthesis is something I almost want just for the gamble of getting one of those maps. These things can go for multiple exalts in some cases. It’s however not even useful early on. Might be something I consider if I have some spare points.

The Shaper and Elder nodes are a must-have since I’ll be farming guardians. Farming the guardians without the Aid node would just be silly. This will be a big area I hope to make the currency I need to move onto harder content. Later on, if I stop farming them I could always drop the nodes.

The Eater of Worlds and The Searing Exarch are somewhat unknowns for me. If I end up having a build that I feel has a chance at farming the end game content of the expansion then I’ll want to have them. They look like quite an end-game node to have.

Torments are great if I was looking to clear an entire map and had it paired with a bunch of other stuff. I’m not and I tend to hate seeing these things on a map as it is.

Unique Maps are not going to be something I’ll be focused on farming. While some of them can be worth a nice amount. Most of the time they are not. These will be something I’ll buy from others so I can get the Atlas skill point for running them.

Vaal Side Areas are never something I once thought I should put extra resources into them so I can get more of them. I’ll run one if I see it hoping I get a Vaal gem I need. Otherwise, they are a total skip for me and not worth getting the nodes for.

The Maven’s Crucible is also something I’ll be farming. Strangely, it’s lacking its category in the nodes. It was very kind of them to put all the nodes in one central area. If they end up being too hard to run with Captivate Interests that increase monster's levels I’ll drop that side of the tree.

Finally, you have a bunch of not notable nodes that have effects on things like item quantity, amp duplication, item rarity, and so on. These are just going to be nodes if I get them while traveling to somewhere eels I want. If I was doing something like Tower farming again I’d be all over those 2% increase of modifier nodes.

That was an insane amount of things to consider. At least now I have an idea of what I possibly want. Chances are it will change over time or other community members will come up with some amazing routes in the tree to take.

The next thing to do is look up everything and see what kind of points I’ll be spending just to get what I want and not including having to get to those nodes. Just to see how realistic or unrealistic the around 108 I expect I’ll be getting this league can get me.

I then started to plot some basic routes on the tree to get where I needed to go. That I would over time change to pick up other stuff in a more efficient manner than I wanted. Until things slowly started to come together.

It did not take long to see 108 points was not going to go near a lot of things I wanted. So I had to trim things down. Anything that was not in my top tiers for wanting was removed. I also played around a bit with what I consider to be needed.

The Shaper and Elder 8 points
Elderslayers 9 points
Delve 19 points
Maven 11 points
The Eater of Worlds 7 points
The Searing Exarch 7 points
Kirac 12 point
Heist 7 points (early mapping)
Maps 13 points (early mapping)
Traveling picking up some map bonus 32 points

In the end, I was still over by a few points from what I think I’ll be getting. The nice thing is if I end up completing end-game content like I’m planning I’ll end up getting more points than I expected. There are also some Delve nodes that I did not need to take and might even be skipping over if I feel my build is good enough on maps when searching for Sulphite veins without them.

There is also another consideration to take into account. Not everything I want will be something I’ll need throughout the entire league season. Early I’ll want nodes for map drops and Heist. Later on, I’ll be dropping many of them including their traveling nodes which will be 23 putting me back within the range I need.

They're also a lot of unknowns. From my limited understanding, Searing Exarch and Eater of Worlds is going to be somewhat like Maven. For Maven progress you had to select the button on the Atlas. Chances are having nodes for all three will be a bit pointless if you can only focus on one which would clear up a lot of other nodes to be put elsewhere.

There is a nice divide between hitting the final Delve nodes I want and all the nodes I want for bossing. So I’ll be able to get a lot of the mapping and non-boss nodes I need early on and not worry about running out of points till I’m ready to make some changes for farming guardians and other stuff.

Until those changes, it looks like I’ll be getting some nice map bonuses to help get me into red tier maps. With maps having a 100% increased chance to be 1 tier higher. 26% increased chance for an extra connected map to drop from a map boss. Along with a small 2% chance increase for a double map drop.

Final Thoughts

My Atlas skill tree can be found here It should meet my needs of wanting to farm bosses, do new content, delve, and a little heist. While also getting some nodes to help with getting higher tier maps. I doubt it’s far from perfect as it’s my first attempt. I’m sure it will change as my own needs do or more things are learned.

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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar. Screenshots are from Path of Exile.

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Path of Exile | Looking At the Atlas Skill Tree

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