If you are still using this guide and have a question, feel free to drop a comment in any of my Youtube videos.

[SSF] LUMINARY BOT BUILD GUIDE

LIFE & LIGHT RADIUS STACKING

This is not a theorycrafted guide. Every PoB, almost every unique item acquisition, every rare craft, and every Atlas strategy used below was from my own SSF journey in 3.29. My PoB at week 2, where I stopped playing: https://pobb.in/4NT9nBVNFSgJ

0.	BUILD THEORY	5.	ATLAS TREES & FARMING ROUTES
1.	POB PROGRESSION	6.	LUXURY UPGRADES & EXCLUSIVE UNIQUES
2.	MERCENARY & SUPPORT SKILLS	7.	BASES TO FILTER
3.	CAMPAIGN	8.	CRAFTING
4.	GEARING

0. BUILD THEORY

Luminary (new Scion ascendancy in 3.29) for permanent merc.
You are playing as a support character for your merc, stacking life and light radius to scale Flame Link’s flat fire damage.
Every point of life → becomes flat fire damage for the merc (via Flame Link) → multiplied by Link Effect (from Luminary ascendancy node Golden Glory).
In 3.29, my character has 16k Maximum Life and 235% Light Radius. That means a casual level 25 Flame Link will give our merc 3621 – 4090 flat fire damage.

FAQ - AMA section:

Q: I heard you need a lot of uniques early game?

A: The build functions unique-less. Focus Maximum Life first, Light Radius after. Of course, Light Radius gear will boost your power by a lot. I cleared 2 Voidstones with a Lori's Lantern, and then 4 Voidstones with a Nycta's + Solaris Lorica.

Q: Do you need to start a different class and warrant a good merc in first?

A: No. I league-started directly as a Luminary and farmed a usable merc in white T1/T2 maps with Merc encounter chance Atlas nodes. Should be even better now that GGG added a patch with Act 10 Merc in Control Blocks.

Q: I do not have enough luck farming an Enmity's Embrace for my merc, thoughts?

A: It’s an 8% drop. Treat this as an end-game goal only. I got 4 Voidstones and ran all needed Atlas strats without it. I did get the ring though, after 22 Trauma’s. Every merc should have alternatives before the Enmity's Embrace & Untouched Soul combo. This guide uses a Blade Ambusher as your main merc earlier since he can have some very strong alternatives: Arkhon's Tools belt (farm-able from Neglect) and Vulconus (global drop - t3 unique weapons).

Q: Do you need a Rotmother's Mutiny?

A: No. A rare amulet with +1 Fire Skill Gem level (Harvest Reforge Fire/alt-spam) + T1/T2 life via recomb can work for early game. Also most likely this Clam Amulet will be gone in 3.30.

Q: Do you need a Kaom's Heart?

A: No. Foulborn Solaris Lorica (25% light radius + 25% Ele taken as Chaos) or Pragmatism are your go-to early body armours. Kaom's is your end-game target, not a gate.

Q: Do you need a Svalinn?

A: No. A rare 5% life-on-block Shaper shield is actually better once you cap block via Versatile Combatant. That’s a 750 life per block on a 15k life character.

Q: Why do you craft Fire/Elemental penetration in your weapons when there is a hard cap in Enmity’s Embrace?

A: The cap on Enmity’s is local. There is no global cap for Elemental pen. Of course there is Diminishing Return, you can always craft Inc Fire damage/Ignite instead.

Do you need link mastery “Link skills link to 1 additional random target” after Hallowed Monarch?

A: No. The “Maximum 1 Link from any source per target” written in any Link skill meant to tell you that you cannot have MULTIPLE links to the SAME target. Not the other way around.

Why you care so much about “Hit cannot be evaded”. I never seen any of the build in trade focusing on accuracy?

A: Mercs do need accuracy. If you take a look at any Marauder melee merc, almost every single one of them has Resolute Technique in their profile stats. That is a hint showing that they do need accuracy. You can compensate with T1/T2 accuracy on helmet, gloves and abyss jewels for your merc. But early on in the league, “Hit cannot be evaded” solves a lot of the gearing problems for attack-based mercs.

Why all the Eldritch implicits in your Merc gear have "While a Unique Enemy/a Pinnacle Atlas Boss is in your Presence" condition?

A: You are considered a Pinnacle Boss to your merc. Remember that you will need Tier 2 (Greater Eldritch ichor/ember) to roll Unique mod. And you need Tier 3 (Grand) to roll Pinnacle Boss mod.

How to change my merc gear sockets to all White?

A: Assuming most of your gears have Abyssal sockets, which leaves the maximum sockets to be 3 for Boots/Gloves/Helmet. Chrome orb until 2 White + 1 Color. Bench craft it to 2 socket. Then Bench craft it back to full sockets.

There are a lot of unused Life Masteries, should I use RuneGrafts on them?

A: No. Applying a RuneGraft onto any Life Mastery will break the condition for our most important one “10% more Maximum Life if you have at least 6 Life Masteries allocated”.

1. POB PROGRESSION

PoB Link	Level & Description
https://pobb.in/09QzQ1VfCdXR	Level 54 — Campaign with Sunder
https://pobb.in/bPeRjsZ6EPdv	Level 76 — Farm a Blade Ambusher/Wild Strike Combatant in Control Blocks Act 10, transitioning to bot
https://pobb.in/7rRz1vF4RFJd	Level 90 — No block, no warcries. Just life for scaling merc’s damage. Lightning coil is whatever I gathered during the run. Not your go-to chest even for early game.
https://pobb.in/6T03WEbGIHAO	Level 93 — 2 Voidstones
https://pobb.in/5gTzcNR0bteO	Level 97 — 4 Voidstones
https://pobb.in/X0sxAYbYvNGJ	Level 100 — Day 9 when I down 10/10 Uber bosses. Iron Reflexes is to abuse my Merc’s Grace aura.
https://pobb.in/lHta5_nCwaNB	Level 100 — Week 2 where I stopped playing

2. MERCENARY CHOICE & SUPPORT SKILLS

My choices in SSF are Blade Ambusher and Combatant. Both let you craft “Hit Cannot Be Evaded” onto their weapons, solving a lot of issues early on without caring much about accuracy on helmet/abyss jewels. Also, they are from the same house - Azadi. This will let you target farm both of them more efficiently. Early game you would not have any juiced map to clear, I would recommend going with a good Blade Ambusher first to get your Voidstones. But if you cannot stand the delay playstyle of trappers, stick with a Combatant with Wild Strike/Static Strike.

	Blade Ambusher (Mapping = D-, Bossing = S+)	Combatant (Mapping = B+, Bossing = B+)
Role	Jungroan’s merc during the 3.26 gauntlet. Trap-based bosser — much better survivability compared to a melee Combatant early game. SUPER easy for gearing. I would recommend to get him first, since early game you won’t have juiced maps to clear.	Very popular in 3.29. There are 2 versions: 1- Frost Blades/Static Strike is superb for clearing but will struggle with single target early on. Do NOT plan your voidstones progression around him. 2- Wild Strike/Static Strike is only somewhat okay for clearing, but has much better single target. A good choice for starting merc if you hate the trapper merc.
Key skill(s) & support priority	Spectral Helix of Trarthus (most insane skill for single target): (1) Multiple Traps → (2) Slower Projectile → (3) Trap and Mine Damage Spectral Throw of Trarthus: (1) Multiple Traps → (2) Slower Projectile → (3) Trap and Mine Damage. Blade Trap: (1) Multiple Traps → (2) Increased Area of Effect → (3) Trap and Mine Damage	Frost Blades: (1) Chain OR Pierce - never both → (2) Greater Elemental Damage with Attack -> (3) Greater Faster Attack -> (4) Greater Hypothermia. Wild Strike: (1) Greater Elemental Damage with Attack -> (2) Greater Faster Attack -> (3) Greater Hypothermia Static Strike: whatever. Stay away from Helix, he will pop Helix even when mobs are not around.
Utility kit	Summon Skitterbot is mandatory for free Shock and for abusing Taming later. For the other utility slot, here’s the priority order: Grace (defensive): you can spec Iron Reflexes to get free 5000 flat armour from his aura. Bear Trap (offensive): solely for Pinnacle Bosses fight since it will slow him down mapping wise. But it’s 25% increased damage taken for other traps. Flame Dash: acceptable. Smoke Mine: bricks the build. Do not ever get this.	Wrath plus Dash/Frost Blink. Movement skill is actually perfect for melee merc, no need for double auras here. Note: If he doesn’t have Wrath, Purity of Ice or double movement skills are also fine. Make sure that he has at least 1 source of Lightning Damage to trigger Shock for Taming (Added Lightning Support, Weapon, Gloves, or Abyss Jewels).
Notes	The “Slower Projectile” roll matters so much for single target damage, especially for your cookie cutter Spectral Helix of Trarthus trap. The blades go in a spiral, start at the center of the ring and fan out at the end. It has to rotate a fix amount of time (4.25 rotations). That means with Slower Projectile, it forces the ring of blades to be clustered right in the middle where it starts, instead of travelling fast to the end of the spiral. This skill has a 0.3s internal cooldown per tick. This cooldown keeps resetting while the blades circle around the boss, resulting in enormous damage. You would want to combo this with the Infamous Combatant mod — “Each Projectile created by Attacks you make with a Melee Weapon has between 50% more and 50% less Projectile Speed at random.” But of course, small ring also equals to missing target once it moves.	Why NO Multistrike on both versions? - This merc is mainly for mapping. Multistrike will lock him in place. When you have enough damage to clear a pack, this will be a problem. Also, there’s no “more damage per repeat” like the player version. Why NO Return on Frost Blades? - For Frost Blades to actually return, you will need A LOT of projectile speed. Most of the popular map layouts have walls for it to bounce. Try open layout and you will not see it returns at all. Why no Chain or GMP for Wild Strike? - Wild Strike rotates between Fire (AOE), Cold (Projectile) and Lightning (Chaining). So Inc AoE will only support Fire, GMP will only support Cold, and Chain will only support Lightning. Any of the above will NOT break the build. They are just not in high priorities.

3. CAMPAIGN

3.1 Act-by-Act Progression

Act / Level	What To Do
Act 1	Spectral Throw from the start; pick up Leap Slam around level 10. Sunder unlocks at level 12, after Fairgraves. Tree checkpoint: path toward the Marauder-side 2-Handed Weapon / melee physical damage cluster nearest Scion’s start, picking up Life nodes along the way. Pick up a Decoy Totem and level it up — you’ll need it for dueling Mercs later. Remember to gamble for a better Axe whenever you have gold.
Act 2	Add Herald of Ash, Blood Rage, Melee Physical Damage, Close Combat. Bandit: Kill All or (my personal choice) Oak. Tree checkpoint: pick up some 2-handed wheel, go towards the Marauder area first. Remember to gamble for a better Axe whenever you have gold.
Act 3 — Mercenary Milestone	Add Vulnerability, swap Haste/Pride as needed. Mercenary duels become available. Guaranteed spawns confirmed at league launch in The Sceptre of God (Act 3), The Grand Arena (Act 4), The Ridge (Act 6), The Hidden Underbelly (Act 8) and Control Blocks (Act 10). Zone-reset technique: leave and re-enter the same area via waypoint/portal to reroll the Mercenary. Save your gold. And start doing Charts/Voyage from here.
Act 5 – Sceptre Gamba	A very important checkpoint is at level 41. Charts/Voyages can earn you a ton of gold. You will use it to gamba for a Sceptre, looking for Nycta’s Lantern. Can also do this with an alt. Rest of the act follows Havoc’s guide on Maxroll or just freestyle from here. Your tree should look like this at 54 https://pobb.in/09QzQ1VfCdXR

3.2 Lab Timing & Ascendancy Order

Lab	Ascendancy Choice
Normal Lab	Take Noble Blood for permanent Mercenary.
Cruel Lab	Take Oath of Fealty for permanent Flame Link (available in Act 4). Also cancels out the double death condition of Flame Link.
Merciless Lab	Take Legendary Items. Not important for campaign. Flex between 2 unique slots later depending on your drops.
Uber Lab	Take Golden Glory. Can get this before Legendary Items if you have no luck for uniques. Take “Energy Shield Mastery” and “Light of Divinity” in your Passive tree for a total of 40% Light Radius early on.

3.3 Full Bot Respec Checkpoint

Act 10. Farm your merc in Act 10 Control Blocks. Whichever merc you go with is entirely up to you. This guide will be written based on my own preference. I will stick with a good (1) Blade Ambusher first → then farm for a mapping (2) Combatant.

3.4 Post-respec Gem Links:

This guide runs Blood Magic throughout. I will not cover the Aura bot version here.

AURA: 2L Purity of Elements - Eternal Blessing.
AURA: 2L Precision - Generosity early (mostly for the extra Accuracy since your mercs do not have “Hit cannot be evaded” early on). Switch to 1L Precision & 1L Vitality later.
LINK: 2L Flame Link + Empower Support (no more More Duration Support needed due to Oath of Fealty ascendancy).
MOVEMENT: 3L Shield Charge - Momentum/Pyre Support - Faster Attack & 1L Frost Blink (swap in Pyre Support only for Pinnacle Bosses for free Cover in Ash).
CURSE: Flammability early. Assassin’s Mark later.
MINE: Bossing only. For all options below, do NOT detonate/use Automation for detonation. You just throw the mine and leave it there to trigger the effect of the mine aura.

2L Stormblast Mine + Minefield Support: 3% increased damage taken per mine, caps at 150 — forget the cap, without much throw-speed investment ~10 mines is realistically achievable, which is still a ~30% more DPS increase.
Early Game: 1L Pyroclast Mine/Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage: 1-link wonder for 15-25% Fire Exposure. Drop once you have Exposure from other sources like Eldritch implicit on merc’s gloves or AG’s Elemental Army. Note: AG’s Elemental Army will only provide Fire Exposure once you have Flame Link on him, which is NOT recommended before Hallowed Monarch.

ANIMATE GUARDIAN: AG — Meat Shield — Elemental Army — Minion Life.
OR ANIMATE GUARDIAN OF SMITING: AGoS — Meat Shield — Elemental Army — Multistrike.

We can Flame Link our AGoS to abuse the late-game Hallowed Monarch with its built-in mod - “Link skills can target damageable minions”. Note that you will NOT need “Link skills link to 1 additional random target” from Link mastery.
If you start linking your AG with Flame Link, you will not be protected by Oath of Fealty. Do not let your AG die.
Meat Shield and Elemental Army are not just defensive gem. They both have conditional damage multiplier. Also Meat Shield will fix the silly AI movement of your AG by keeping him close.
You can craft a pseudo 6L using Elder Gloves for him [View Crafting Guide].

WARCRIES (Optional and completely based on preference - remember to take the Warcries cluster with “Minimum 10 powers” mastery): 3L Enduring Cry - Urgent Orders Support - Pick 1 from More Duration Support/Ancestral Cry/Battle Mage Cry.
CONVOCATION (Optional): 2L Convocation - Automation. You will most likely have to drop this late game since we are super socket starving.

4. GEARING:

4.1 Early Game (2 Voidstones)

Cast: You, Blade Ambusher, Animate Guardian (AG). If you really hate the Trapper and are looking for Combatant’s gearing, go to the Post-uber section for his gear.

Slot	You	Blade Ambusher	AG
Weapon & Offhand	1x Nycta's Lantern and 1x rare Shield with Life/Res OR 2x Nycta's Lantern	Any rare dagger/claw with (1) Crit chance -> (2) Crit damage -> (3) Accuracy -> (4) Elemental damage with attack	Dying Breath
Helmet	Rare with Life and Light Radius OR Corrupted Unique Helmet with 25-30% Light Radius implicit from Leo in Fortification OR Steal a Helmet from Infamous Eruptor for “Your Warcries cover Enemies in Ash for 5 seconds”	Evasion based rare: Life/Fire Res (to prepare for Enmity’s Embrace swap)	Leer Cast
Body Armor	Solaris Lorica OR Belly of the Beast	Evasion based rare: Life/Fire Res	Belly of the Beast
Gloves	Rare with Life and Chaos Res.	Evasion based rare: Life/Fire Res	Southbound
Boots	Rare with Movement Speed/Life/Res/Attribute	Evasion based rare: Movement Speed	Wake of Destruction
Belt	Rare with Life/Res	Stygian Vise with Life + Fire Res early on	N/A
Rings	1x Voideye for +5 Flame Link level & 1x Lori's Lantern OR 2x Lori's Lantern	Any trash rare	N/A
Amulet	Turquoise Amulet with Life/Chaos Res/Attributes OR Ignomon (Light Radius + blinded to help out with the lack of accuracy on your merc early game)	Any trash rare	N/A
Jewels	Any rare with following mods, in priority order: % Max life -> Chance to block -> Dex/Int -> Max res	N/A	N/A

4.2 Mid Game (4 Voidstones)

Same 3 characters: You, Blade Ambusher, AG.

Slot	You	Blade Ambusher	AG
Weapon & Offhand	Nycta's + a rare crafted Ezomyte Tower Shield with (1) High block chance, (2) Maximum life and (3) Reduced Damage from Crits/Additional phys reduction [View Crafting Guide]	2x Vulconus	No update
Helmet	Rare Giantslayer Helmet — Life + Res + Light Radius [View Crafting Guide] OR Rare Armour based Helmet with (1) Maximum Life, (2) Light Radius and (3) “Your Warcries cover Enemies in Ash for 5 seconds” [View Crafting Guide]	Evasion based with (1) +1 Abyssal socket and (2) Fire res [View Crafting Guide]	No update
Body Armor	Foulborn Solaris Lorica OR Pragmatism (put 1L Flame Link here)	Evasion based with (1) +1 Abyssal socket and (2) Fire res [View Crafting Guide]	No update
Gloves	Leviathan Gauntlets with Life/Chaos res. Add (Implicit) Mine Throwing Speed [View Crafting Guide]	Evasion based gloves with Fire res and crafted AOE/AOE damage	No update
Boots	Leviathan Greaves with Movement Speed/Life/Chaos res [View Crafting Guide]	Evasion based with (1) +1 Abyssal socket and (2) Fire res [View Crafting Guide]	Legacy of Fury (from Maven)
Belt	Kaom's Binding OR Ceinture of Benevolence	Arkhon's Tools	N/A
Rings	No update	Any trash rare	N/A
Amulet	Rare Turquoise Amulet with +1 to Fire Skill Gem & Maximum Life OR Ignomon OR Foulborn Hinekora's Sight (up to 50% Light Radius) Cheap Anoint: Combat Stamina (1x Clear, 1x Verdant & 1x Black)	Any trash rare OR Eternal Struggle (15% culling - from Black Star/Infinite Hunger)	N/A
Jewels	No update	N/A	N/A

4.3 Ubers

Still You, Blade Ambusher, AG — this is the gear that got 10/10 Ubers down.

Slot	You	Blade Ambusher	AG
Weapon & Offhand	No update	2x Crafted Gutting Knives with (1) Crit Chance + (2) Crit Damage + (3) Multimodded Hit Cannot Be Evaded & Attack Penetrate Elements/Inc Fire damage/Trap damage [View Crafting Guide]	Dying Breath OR Kingmaker
Helmet	No update	No update	No update
Body Armor	Kaom's Heart	No update	Belly of the Beast OR Garb of the Ephemeral
Gloves	No update	“Random projectile speed” evasion based gloves [View Crafting Guide]	No update
Boots	No update	No update	No update
Belt	Ceinture of Benevolence	Stygian Vise with Fire Res and Elemental damage with attack. Note: In 3.29 there’s a BIS mod using Rotmother’s Ducat craft for “Throw up to one additional trap if dual wielding”. Huge chance it will be gone in 3.30 [View Crafting Guide].	N/A
Rings	2x Vermillion rings ilvl 82+ — Life, Chaos Res, Light Radius [View Crafting Guide]	Enmity's Embrace AND The Taming	N/A
Amulet	Rare Turquoise Amulet with +1 to Fire Skill Gem & Maximum Life OR Foulborn Hinekora's Sight (up to 50% Light Radius) Anoint: Discipline And Training (1x Black & 2x Silver)	Untouched Soul (Remember to bench craft to make all white sockets in other pieces) Anoint = High Explosives (2x Verdant * 1x Silver)	N/A
Jewels	No update	N/A	N/A

4.4 Post-Ubers (Week 2+) — Combatant added, Switch to AGoS if you want to

Cast expands to 4: You, Blade Ambusher, Combatant (new — mapping merc), and AGoS (Animate Guardian of Smiting) to abuse Hallowed Monarch. Note: you can see me crafting all Evasion gear only. This is for sharing between the 2 mercs.

Slot	You	Combatant	AGoS
Weapon & Offhand	Nycta's + a rare Shaper Shield with (1) High block chance, (2) Maximum life and (3) 5% Life on block [View Crafting Guide]	2x Jewelled Foils with (1) Crafted Hit Cannot Be Evaded -> (2) Crit Chance -> (3) Attack Speed -> (4) Flat cold → (5) Crit Multi -> (6) Elemental damage with attack [View Crafting Guide] OR Luxury!!: 2x Paradoxica (Attack Speed + Elemental Penetration). Will need to trade the unique-amulet slot for a crafted Simplex Amulet/Reflected Amulet to compensate for the Fire Res loss.	Grey Wind (or Foulborn Frostbreath) & Rathpith Globe Note: If you have Kingmaker, please don’t switch. Stick with Animate Guardian as an aura bot.
Helmet	The Hallowed Monarch	Shared between mercs Evasion based with (1) +1 Abyssal socket and (2) Fire res	Crown of Eyes
Body Armor	No update	Evasion base with: (1) Onslaught for 6 seconds when hit – Essence of Insanity + (2) Fire res + (3) Abyssal socket OR Luxury!!: Evasion base with “Crit chance is equal to overcapped Lightning res” (You will need to sell 60 Synaptic rings for Esh’s mod on a Grasping mail and still only have 10% to get this specific mod. Given how unrealistic this goal is for most people, I would recommend NOT to target this even as your end goal. Unless you are Ben) [View Crafting Guide]	Garb of the Ephemeral
Gloves	No update	Evasion based with (1) Fire Res -> (2) Attack Speed -> (3) +1 Abyssal Socket [View Crafting Guide]	Rare crafted gloves with Maximum Life, Attack Speed, Chaos res and Exarch Implicit “+2 targets Non-Vaal Strike when Unique enemy nearby” OR Gravebind
Boots	No update	Shared between mercs Evasion based with (1) +1 Abyssal socket and (2) Fire res	Legacy of Fury
Belt	No update	Stygian Vise with (1) Elemental Damage with Attack and (2) Fire res via recomb	N/A
Rings	No update	Enmity’s Embrace + Call of the Void	N/A
Amulet	Rotmother’s Mutiny (Most likely will be gone in 3.30) OR Crafted rare +2 Gem Level Amulet on either a +1 to level of all skill gem Croaker Talisman base, or a 15% Maximum Life Gargantuan Talisman base [View Crafting Guide]: +1 to level of All Skill Gem & +1 to level of All Fire Gem & Maximum Life Anoint: Discipline And Training (1x Black & 2x Silver)	Untouched Soul (not shared with the Trapper due to different anointment) OR A crafted Simplex Amulet with Fire Res and All Elemental Res (only if you go Paradoxica route for him) ============================ Anoint options: <early> Ambidexterity (1x Amber, 1x Azure & 1x Black) <mid> Lethality (1x Sepia, 1x Violet & 1x Silver) - Yes, this one will apply to all 3 elements of WildStrike as the anointment only checks the gem/skill tags <late> Veteran’s Wrath (1x Violet & 2x Golden)	N/A
LUXURY: Unique Jewels	Foulborn The Red Dream + 7 Fire res tattoos from Kingsmarch Light of Meaning (life) to combo with Unnatural Instinct Bound By Destiny — random 2x-influence can roll +10-15% max Life with 2 Elder influenced gears. Dissolution of the Flesh — (20-30)% MORE Maximum Life. Note that now instead of losing life on hit, your life will instead be reserved until you go 2 seconds without taking Damage. Cap block before slotting this in.	Luxury: Tecrod’s Gaze (Note: will have to update all of your abyss jewel to Murderous now – look for Attack speed/Attack speed if crit recently/Fire Res)	N/A

5. ATLAS TREE PROGRESSION & FARMING ROUTES

5.1 First Atlas tree: Low tier uniques - https://poeplanner.com/a/65kJ

PoE Planner

Purpose

How to Run

Progression for first Atlas tree:

https://poeplanner.com/a/6ZbQ for Unwavering Vision ->

https://poeplanner.com/a/6Zb4 for 100% Merc chance ->

https://poeplanner.com/a/65Ct for 100% Jun chance ->

https://poeplanner.com/a/65kJ for Breach and Div cards wheel

Mercenary: target Azadi house for Blade Ambusher & Combatant

Betrayal: Experience, T4-T5 uniques and Trarthan scarabs

Breach: Uniques & Rares from Wombgifts, Hivebrain Glands and (optional) Rare Breach Rings for Grasping mail vendor recipe.

Div card wheel: For Light and Truth div card farming in Palace.

What uniques you can target from this tree:

1. Nycta’s Lantern: Could have gotten this at level 41 gambling (Check Campaign). If you did not, farm Light and Truth div card in Palace (natural Tier 9) or Ivory Temple (natural tier 13, much better map layout). Also, add card into a higher tier in your filter.

2. Lori’s Lantern & Void Eye

3. Kaom’s binding & Ceinture of Benevolence

4. Solaris Lorica & Foulborn Solaris Lorica

5. Ignomon & Foulborn Hinekora’s Sight

6. (AG) Dying’s Breath

7. (AG) Leer Cast

8. (AG) Belly of the Beast

9. (AG) Wake of Destruction

10. (AG) Southbound

11. (Merc – Blade Ambusher) Vulconus

12. (AG) Crown of Eyes

Merc:

Look for a better Blade Ambusher/Combatant.
Steal any usable rares/uniques
Look out for Infamous Combatant (for Random Projectile Speed Gloves) and Infamous Eruptor (for Cover in Ash Helmet) for later recomb.

Betrayal: In priority order

Rin to Forti: Unique maps to unlock metamods crafting.
Janus to Research: Cadiro can offer a wide range of uniques. Not as OP as Cadiro anomalies, but great for early unique acquisition.
Riker to Research OR Forti OR Transport: All 3 options are unique related. Strongest one is Research for 30 Ancient Orbs slamming.
Vagan to Transportation: Trarthan scarab chest. Whenever you have a pair of (1) Infamy and (2) Renown, do a white T1/T2 map to fish for uniques. Might have to wait until you unlock 2nd Atlas tree though. Since this one has Unwavering Vision.
Leo to Forti: Double corrupted uniques. Even if they are not the uniques you are looking for, always check GLOVES and HELMET since they can roll (1) Curse on hit and (2) Light Radius implicits respectively.
Gravicius to Transport: I got a full stack of King’s Heart div cards in 3.29.
It That Fled to Transport OR Intervention: Transport for Foulborn uniques. Intervention for random Eye of Terror card (nerfed), and also for Breach scarabs.
Hillock to anywhere: “The Finishing Touch” for Fertile Catalysts.

Breach: Do not spec to only Hive or only Unstable Breach until you unlock all Breach passives.

Do Unstable Breach for Vruun.
Spam Ancient Wombgift for uniques.
Spam Provisioning Wombgift for rares.
Spam Mysterious Wombgift with INFREQUENTLY found items for Hivebrain Gland (Breach twin bosses).
Vendor Lavish 5 to 1.

5.2 Second Atlas Tree: Kaom’s Heart + Trauma & Ritual window shopping - https://poeplanner.com/a/65eL

PoE Planner

Purpose

How to Run

https://poeplanner.com/a/65eL

Note: Drop Abyss or Breach if you don’t like to have Unwavering Vision blocking your scarabs drop.

This tree is to target farming King’s Heart divination card for our Kaom’s Heart. The key is monster density. The other goal is to random drop Memory of Trauma (for Enmity’s Embrace) and Ritual Nameless hunt.

Altered Prophecy: Div card wheel.

Merc: Not related to the strat. But we always need to hunt for better mercs.

Breach: Unstable Breaches for more monsters. Hivebrain Glands. Ancient Wombgifts. Synaptic Rings.

Abyss: More monsters. Stygian Vise. Abyssal socketed gear (via Votive Hoard) for recomb later for Merc’s gears. I don’t do Delve, no hate just preference.

Shrines: More monsters. More power for us and our mercs.

Ritual: More monsters. Nameless Ritual hunting for King’s invitation. This is for Untouched Soul and Light of Meaning (Life version). Pick up Pragmatism in your hidden loot filter too, if you do not have a better chest at this stage.

Eater altars: More quant. Div card dup. Div card for unique armor/weapon.

Memory block: Less chance for Neglect and Dread. This is to get Memory of Trauma for Enmity’s Embrace.

========================================

Honorable mention: You can switch your tree to Beyond and spec K’tash for more Div Card drop. But I don’t need anything from Beyond in my run. Hence the above choices.

1. Spec Altered Prophecy in Atlas Skill Tree for Scrying orb drop chance (T14+).

2. Farm Caldera until Scrying orb drops. Unspec Altered Prophecy to free point.

3. Scry Caldera to either City Square (recommended - for Cadiro anomaly) or Jungle Valley (no boss altars).

4. Farm your scry-ed map with Eater of World influence.

5. If City Square, rush to boss to eliminate boss altars.

6. Always pick the following Altars: Quantity/Div card duplicate/Div card for unique armour.

7. Do all mechanics EXCEPT for Ritual. You will only do Ritual if it is Nameless.

8. Don’t forget to visit Gamba box and Cadiro whenever you have Anomalies in the map.

=======================================

Ritual Note: If you do find Nameless Rituals, try to defer all Audience with the King. Then immediately spec to “Immutable Dogma” and 2 small nodes for “Favours deferred reappears 20% sooner”. This is to get all of the Invitations out in the next map or two.

Kingsmarch: You should also start setting up your Kingsmarch around this point. Reroll at Raulf and get:

18x level 4/5 Farmers: I did all Blue Zanth for easy management.
9x level 4/5 Sailors: Send 4,200 Blue Zanth (or 100,000 shipment value) to Ngakanu to fish for Fire Res & Attack Block tattoos. Send 19,000 Blue Zanth (or 450,000 shipment value) to Pondium to fish for Runegraft of the Warp.
3x level 4/5 Enchanters: Throw the rares you got from above shipping and any trash uniques here. Need a lot of dusts for recomb.
<Don’t do this when you are short on gold> As many level 4+ Mappers as you can: Feed them scour/white Shaper and Elder Guardian maps for (1) Fragments, (2) Shaper shields and (3) Elder gloves.

5.3 Alternative Second Atlas Tree: Harvest - https://poeplanner.com/a/65kf

PoE Planner

Purpose

How to Run

https://poeplanner.com/a/65kf

Harvest is mandatory in SSF. Even though this has been offloaded a whole lot by AllFlame boat crafting in 3.29. You will still need this for:

Harvest reforge crafting
Corrupted essence swapping
Catalyst swapping
Elemental resist swapping
And of course, gambling div cards.

This planner is only the barebone of Harvest. You can couple in any mechanic that you prefer. I always do Crop Rotation for the juice that I’m missing. But that requires some luck and a tiny bit of knowledge, thus I’ll leave it out from this tree. You can watch DSLily guide for crop rotation if you are into it.

1. Run T16s City Square with either Eater or Exarch influence. They both have Quant altars now. Juice scaled with higher the map tier, so don’t run this in low level maps.

2. Rush boss to eliminate boss altars.

3. Get all quantity altars.

4. Do Harvest last.

5.4 Third Atlas Tree: Uber fragments for Hallowed Monarch - https://poeplanner.com/a/65eQ

PoE Planner

Purpose

How to Run

https://poeplanner.com/a/65-I

We need to chase our BIS helment – Hallowed Monarch. Helmet drops from Uber Dread -> need Reverent Fragment -> gotta farm Sanctuary.

Tree is all about boosting character power so you can handle the boss easily. Just pick up those nodes and run straight to boss. They nerfed Nightmare/T17 a lot. This place is no longer the best place to farm everything anymore.

1. Roll your Nightmare maps to item quantity 90%+. Use https://poe.re/#/maps to find your own regex since there are too many janky mods bricking your build. I would definitely want to stay away from “Reduced chance to block”, “Cannot regen” and “Extra Maximum Life as Energy Shield”.

2. Run Sanctuary with either Eater or Exarch influence

3. Scarab slot = 4 Sacrifice Fragment (5% quant each).

4. (OPTIONAL) Add in a “Influencing Scarab of Inteference”, only if you can handle it.

5. (OPTIONAL) Pick Quantity Altar. Also only if you can handle it.

6. Pick up all power boosting mechanic: Shrines, Delves, and Huck companion from contract.

7. Skip trash mobs. Run straight to boss.

6. HIGH TIER UNIQUES & LUXURY UPGRADES:

Always go for Cadiro Anomaly. Lots of T2+ uniques can be obtained from here. Try to stick with City Square, Mesa, or any of your favourite map in the bottom left quadrant.

6.1. Enmity’s Embrace:

8% drop rate from Incarnation of Fear - already covered in 5.2. Second Atlas Tree.

6.2. The Taming:

You should already had Berek’s Grip and Berek’s Pass since they drop like flies.
Farm Berek’s Respite by spamming Volcano map for The Spark and The Flame div card, as this map also drops Pride Before the Fall (div card for corrupted Kaom’s Heart). Use the same scrying tactic as in Atlas Tree #2. Since we already scry Caldera to City Square, the other options to scry into are (1) Mesa -> (2) Cemetery -> (3) Jungle’s Valley.
Vendor recipe the 3 Berek’s rings and pray for max roll.
Use Turbulent Catalyst x 20. If you do not farm Ultimatum (which is absolutely the right thing to do), harvest swap other Catalysts to get them. Source of other Catalysts are from either (1) Hillock in Betrayal or (2) Kingsmarch mappers.
Gamba all your leftover Pride Before the Fall div cards once you are done farming Taming.

6.3. Rotmother’s Mutiny

Watch my 2 minute video [POE 3.29] How to target farm Rotmother's Mutiny - new unique clam amulet.
A lot of people claimed the “Adjacent Unique Amulet conversion” mod do not work on this strat. I would still go for the Voyage setup though, as no official source confirming otherwise. RNG is RNG, just try your best to increase the chance.
Also try to roll your Clam Infested Shelf to have both Quant and Rarity. Having IIR in your gears will definitely help too.

6.4. Greywind (for AGoS) & Foulborn The Red Dream

Hivebrain Gland – twin bosses: they have a fair chance to drop both (1) Foulborn The Red Dream/Nightmare and (2) Flesh of Xhest – the currency to flex between the 2 version of the jewel. Greywind is exclusive from this boss. But only has like 2-3% drop rate.
For Foulborn The Red Dream only, you can also target birthing it from Breach Tree: Inc chance for Jewels -> Roll additional rarest outcome -> 50% inc chance for Breach/Foulborn -> 85% less chance for intel/dex/strength.
To utilize this jewel, you will need 6-7 Fire res tattoos depending on how you flex your tree. Send 4200 Blue Zanth to Ngakanu. It will guaranteed at least 1 Strength tattoo. You would look for Fire res and Block chance tatts for this build.

6.5. Untouched Soul, Pragmatism & Light of Meaning (life)

Ritual – The King in the Mists – already covered in 5.2. Second Atlas Tree.

6.6. Garb of the Ephemeral (for AG/AGoS)

9% Drop rate from Venarius (Cortex)
To get Cortex, spam Synthesis Maps. It is a 25% drop rate from any of the 4.

6.7. Rathpith Globe (for AGoS)

Go farm any T1 map (or any level 68 area) -> pick up a chance-able 2x2 shield.
Chance orb plus reroll rarity using bench craft -> until you have a 2x2 Unique Shield with ilevel 68+ (the closer the better) for Ancient Orb-ing.
Boat Ancient Orb = 4 outcomes without any intangibility.
I got lucky with mine in 29 Ancient Orbs, which equals to ~7 boat crafts.

6.8. Gravebind

Go to Act 8 Harbour Bridge (or any level 58 area) -> pick up a chance-able pair of gloves.
Chance orb plus reroll rarity using bench craft -> until you have a pair of Unique Gloves with ilevel 58+ (the closer the better) for Ancient Orb-ing.
Boat Ancient Orb = 4 outcomes without any intangibility.

6.9. Bound by Destiny

Exclusive drop from 3 Incarnations. You should have a lot of these Memories while farming for Enmity’s Embrace. Also should have a lot of redundant fragment for Uber Fear and Uber Neglect while farming for Hallowed Monarch.
Look for “15% Maximum Life if 2 Elder influenced gears equipped” mod.
Save your Elder Exalted Orbs to slam into the pair of rings. Can also craft a pair of Elder Gloves [View Crafting Guide] if you are investing in your Animate Guardian of Smiting.

6.10. Dissolution of the Flesh

Exclusive drop from Exarch. Low drop rate of only 2%. Up to 30% MORE Life. A very strong boost to your damage, but be very careful with how your defence works now. Your bare minimum is capping your blocks before using this jewel.

6.11. Tecrod’s Gaze (Combatant)

In the Abyss Depth’s wheel in Atlas skill tree, get all the small nodes for Amanamu and Ulaman.
Put Cameria in Transportation if you want to target Abyss scarabs
Run map with (1) Abyss scarab and (2) Abyss Scarab of Descending to guarantee boss fight. Without scarabs, just get the Depth chance in Atlas skill tree and alch & go.
It is a 3% chance to drop from either boss.
Note: will have to update all of your abyss jewel to Murderous now – look for Attack speed/Attack speed if crit recently/Fire Res. Best way is to Harvest reforge speed.

6.12. Call of the Void (Combatant)

This ring enables Flame Link flat fire damage to chill and apply to your Combatant’s Herald of Ice too. Thus makes the clear much more enjoyable regardless of the skill your Combatant has.
Very common drop from Uber Uber Elder (one of the easiest Uber bosses) with fragments come from Fortress (the easiest Nightmare map). Use Atlas tree #3 for those Decaying Fragment farm.

6.13. Paradoxica (Combatant)

Spam Intervention Safehouses.
Try to force Vorici and It that Fled into Intervention while you are farming these. They give Harvest and Breach scarabs respectively.
Best unveils = Elemental Penetration & Attack Speed. We have a lot of flat fire from Flame Link. There’s no need for Phys mod like normal unveil.
You will need to take care of 2 things for your Combatant merc before switching to dual Paradoxica’s:

Get either a Simplex Amulet (Heist) to craft Fire res and All Elemental res. Or a very good reflected Fire res amulet. This is to compensate the Fire res loss when you stop using Untouched Soul.
Get accuracy in every other piece of gear: Helmet, Gloves and Murderous Abyss Jewels since you no longer have “Hit cannot be evaded” craft anymore.

6.14. Arkhon’s Tools (Blade Ambusher)

Superb trapper belt from normal Incarnation of Neglect. If it’s not that we have to combo Enmity’s Embrace and Untouched Soul due to the restriction of the build allowing our merc to only wear 2 uniques, this is on-par with the +1 Additional Trap belt from Voyage.
A very high drop rate of 38%. Farm this while you are struggling with obtaining Enmity’s Embrace or Untouched Soul.

6.15. Grasping Mail with “Critical Strike Chance is increased by Overcapped Lightning Resistance” (Both Mercs)

Warning: This is a super tedious farm.
This Grasping Mail can only be acquired by vendor recipe 60 Breach Rings.
A random rare Breach Ring is guaranteed to be dropped from Vruun (Unstable Breach Boss).
The mod we are looking for is an Esh mod. You will want to sell 60 Synaptic Rings for 100% Esh mod. You can certainly mix in other Breach ring, but it will pollute your mod pool in the final Grasping Mail output. Your call here. I filter only Synaptic Rings and ignore all the rest.
Get the node for (1) Only Unstable Breach and (2) Chance for double Breach bosses in Atlas Skill Tree.
Use (1) Breach scarabs and (2) Breach scarab of Marshal to guarantee Boss fight. Put It That Fled in Intervention for Breach scarab chest to stock up your scarabs.
NOTE:

The mod we are looking for “Critical Strike Chance is increased by Overcapped Lightning Resistance” is a super low weight mod even with 60 Synaptic Rings. It’s only a 10% to hit.
You will then have to win the recomb with your Syndicate’s Garb because none of your merc can wear a Grasping Mail.
Boat Fracture Orb and hope it hits the mod if you somehow succeeded all of the above.
If Fracture hits -> Boat Resonator using “Hollow Fossil” (Abyssal socket) and “Glyphic Fossil” (random Corrupted Essence mod) to hit “Onslaught 6 seconds on hit” and an Abyssal Socket.
If Fracture fails -> Either gamba with another recomb (Don’t do this) or just accept your fate and Boat Exalt Slam or Suffixes cannot be changed -> Harvest Reforge Fire for some Fire res and call it a day. I have not tested with Kishara’s Ducat, but it should work exactly the same as split beast and cannot “delete” the fractured modifier.

6.16. Volatile Vaal Orb on Kaom’s Heart

My apology on the wrong info on Tailoring Orb. It cannot be used on a fixed socket item such as Kaom’s. Credit to DivinityAI on Reddit.
Volatile Vaal Orb is now an exclusive reward in Forbidden Sanctum. I got 2 out of 5 runs. Pretty common in Floor 4.
It cannot be boat crafted. So just yolo and win the gamble.
The maximum ceiling of this combination is: 1000 (base) * 1.22 (Maximum roll on Volatile Vaal Orb) = 1220 Life.

6.17. Vaal Orb on Ceinture of Benevolence

Pick a better visual for Cloth Belt Uniques in your Filter.
Can also farm Alva’s temple for double corrupt room (Tier 3 Locus of Corruption) if you have some to spare. I would save these for Nycta’s Lantern and Hallowed Monarch.
Mods that you are looking for are:

4-6% Maximum Life (best)
% Rarity of Items found
Bleeding cannot be inflicted on you
Cannot be poisoned
%Attributes
Chaos Res
Movement/Attack Speed during flasks

6.18. Double corrupt on Nycta’s Lantern

Farm Alva’s temple for double corrupt room (Tier 3 Locus of Corruption).
Mods that you are looking for are:

+1 to All Fire Skill gem (Best - only 1.5% chance to hit though)
Attack speed (yes, local attack speed in weapon does affect your Shield Charge)

6.19. Double corrupt on Hallowed Monarch

Farm Alva’s temple for double corrupt room (Tier 3 Locus of Corruption).
A lot of good corruptions on helmets:

25-30% Light Radius (Best)
+2 Socketed AOE gem (for Purity of Elements/Vitality/Precision)
+2 Socketed Aura gem (for Purity of Elements/Vitality/Precision)
+2 Socketed Duration gem (for Flame Link)
+2 Socketed Fire gem (for Flame Link)
4-6% Maximum Life

7. BASES TO FILTER (@FilterBlade)

Chancing

Crystal Sceptre (ilvl 1+)
Prismatic Ring (ilvl 1+)
Copper Plate (ilvl 1+)

Crafting — Your character

Giantslayer Helmet (ilvl 81+)
Leviathan Gauntlets (ilvl 81+)
Leviathan Greaves (ilvl 81+/86) — Can settle with 81. Base 86 is for 35% movement speed.
Vermillion Ring (ilvl 80+)
Ezomyte Tower Shield (ilvl 81+)
Stygian Vise (ilvl 68+)
Elder-influenced Gloves (by throwing Guardian maps to your Kingsmarch mappers)

Crafting — Your Merc(s)

Jewelled Foil (ilevel 77+) for T1 attack speed, T1 crit chance, and T1 crit multi
Gutting Knife (ilevel 73+) for T1 crit chance and T1 crit multi
Majestic Pelt, Syndicate’s Garb, Velour Gloves and Velour Boots (ilevel 84+) for T1 Fire res. Note: Evasion base only so you can switch between your mercs.

8. CRAFTING

NEW — AllFlame/Boat Crafting

AllFlame benchcraft is extremely powerful since it can return 2–4 outcomes for you to choose from, depending on the currency used.
Exception: does NOT work with Vaal Orb and Volatile Vaal Orb. Mirror of Kalandra is pointless (outcome always 1). Scouring will technically work but is pointless too.
Downside — Intangibility: you can’t “spam” AllFlame crafting too much on a single item. Ghostly items gain “intangibility” after each Boat craft. More intangibility means higher chance for only 1 outcome.
This does not apply to Ancient Orb, since Ancient Orb converts the item into a completely different base entirely rather than modifying it in place. We can abuse it to get our Rathpith and Gravebind.

8.1 Your Shield

The plan is to recomb a shield with (1) T1 Maximum Life + (2) T2+ Attack Block Chance, and pray for a Shaper slam to hit (3) Recover 3-5% life on block.

Base = Ezomyte Tower Shield i81 (i86 is best but it will take ages to farm this base).
Recomb T1 Maximum Life & T2+ Chance to Block.
Lock prefix → either Harvest Reforge Critical (for “Reduced Damage from Critical Strike”) OR Harvest Reforge Physical (for “Phys Reduction”).

Your call. “Reduce damage from Crit” will be redundant once your AG wear Garb of Ephemeral. But choosing Refore Phys has a huge chance to add “Reflect # phys” which is a super trash mod into your open prefix. I leave this 3rd prefix empty to have a chance to craft “+2 Level of Socketed Support Gem” for our Flame Link + Empower combo.

If suffixes are filled, yolo Annul and pray — need at least 1 empty suffix for the next step.
Boat craft Shaper Exalted Orb for 2 outcomes, looking for Recover % Life on Block (Shaper slam hits this at 800/8000 ≈ 10%, vs Warlord’s 250/5250 ≈ 4.7%). With AllFlame/Boat craft you effectively get a ~20% chance to hit it.
If successful

With open prefix: Benchcraft “+2 to level of Socketed Support Gem” (only if you have Empower -> Put your Flame Link/Empower here).
With open suffix: Benchcraft anything phys reduction/attribute/res.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T HIT YOUR SHAPER SLAM:

(Recommended) Settle with it — still a very good shield, upgrade later.
OR lock prefix → Harvest Reforge Life again (~8% chance).
OR start fresh, treating it as just another Shaper-influenced base, Harvest Reforge Life until both T3+ Life and Recover % Life on Block hit, then multimod whatever.

Allow me to post Ben’s shield and another example here. Both of these are not from me since I used Svalinn since day 2 (my bad).

8.2 Your Helmet (cheap)

Need an Armour based helmet with (1) Maximum Life and (2) Light Radius. The plan is to birth well-rolled rares via the (nerfed) Breach tree, then recomb it with a Giantslayer Helmet with T1 “Light Radius/Global Accuracy” mod.

With Giantslayer Helmet i81:

Harvest Reforge Attack T1 %Inc 15% Light Radius/Global Accuracy — cheap to spam since only 2 Attack-tagged mods exist besides Accuracy Rating.
Alternative: alteration spam (suffix is called “Of Radiance”).

With Breach tree, birth with Provisioning Wombgifts, targeting rares with T2+ Life, Res, Dex/Int. Breach tree setup: increased chance for Helmet, increased chance for Strength requirement, reduced chance for Phys mod, increased chance for any Chaos/Fire/Cold/Lightning, increased chance for Attack (to fish for the Light Radius mod), increased chance for Life.
Recomb the two — pray it hits the Giantslayer base.
Boat Exalt or benchcraft for remaining mods.

8.3 Your Helmet (Cover in Ash version) – Credit to my friend POELLINGO#3427

Start with white base Giantslayer Helmet i81:

Harvest Reforge Attack T1 %Inc 15% Light Radius/Global Accuracy — cheap to spam since only 2 Attack-tagged mods exist besides Accuracy Rating.
Alternative: Alteration spam (suffix is called “Of Radiance”).

Farm Infamous Eruptor for “Warcries cover enemies in Ash for 5 seconds”.
Recomb the 2.
If clean with 2 mods, lock suffixes -> Harvest reforge Chaos to guarantee Chaos res.
If not clean (like in image)

Lock suffixes -> Harvest reforge Life for Maximum Life.
You technically can Boat Eldritch Annul here but it is not worth it. This helmet will be replaced by Hallowed Monarch anyway.

Boat Exalt Slam and Bench craft the rest.

8.4. Your Gloves & Boots

Breach tree can no longer craft weapons and off-hands. But for every other piece, it still births a lot of good fodder for our recomb.

Alteration spam for your desired mod — Life for gloves, Life/Movespeed for boots.
Base = Leviathan Gauntlets i81 & Leviathan Greaves i81 (i86 needed for 35ms boots)
Use well-rolled rares from the Breach tree.
Recomb, then AllFlame Exalt + benchcraft if needed.
If recombining into the Leviathan base fails, the item is still fine to use until you can afford another attempt.

8.5. Your Amulet (Section reserved for 3.30 mostly. In 3.29 farm your Clam Amulet instead)

Target is an ammy with +2 Gem levels (for Flame Link) and Maximum Life. Best base is either a +1 All Skill Gem level Croaker Talisman (from Craicic Croaker, also happens to be the Imprint Beast) or a 15% Maximum Life Gargantuan Talisman (from Farric Gargantuan). Spec your Einhar Atlas nodes to “The Deep” and “The Wilds” to farm them.

Alt-spam for +1 to Level of All Skill Gems (prefix) — takes roughly 2,500 – 4,000 alterations. Imprint here if you have 1.
AllFlame/Boat Regal Orb.
If you hit Maximum Life (prefix): settle with the tier you get, then benchcraft (1) Multimod + (2) Cannot Roll Attack + (3) Prefixes Cannot Be Changed → Harvest AUGMENT Fire (the expensive one, not Reforge) for guaranteed +1 to Level of All Fire Skill Gems → pray that Prefixes Cannot Be Changed survived so you do not have to waste another 2 divines here -> Harvest Reforge Chaos for guaranteed Chaos Res → AllFlame Exalt slam → benchcraft whatever’s left.
If you don’t hit Maximum Life (or the tier is too low):

Use AllFlame a second time with Kishara’s Ducat to split the item and retrieve the rare amulet with +1 All Skill Gems. This split ducat does NOT guarantee a return of the +1 to Level of All Skill Gems. But you must be super unlucky to have 4 losing outcomes at once.
Then: benchcraft Multimod + Cannot Roll Attack + Prefixes Cannot Be Changed → Harvest AUGMENT Fire for guaranteed +1 All Fire Skills → if successful, Prefix Cannot Be Changed → Harvest Reforge Life for any tier of Maximum Life → another Prefix Cannot Be Changed → Harvest Reforge Chaos for Chaos Res → AllFlame Exalt → finish with a benchcraft.

8.6. Your Vermillion Rings

Lori's Lantern x2 work for a long time. But our end goal is a pair of Vermillion Rings (80+) with (1) Maximum Life, (2) Light Radius and (3) Chaos Res/Dex/Int.

Spam Harvest Reforge Chaos for guaranteed Chaos Res until you hit the suffix “15% Light Radius/Global Accuracy”
Boat Exalt Slam looking for Life or another good suffix (Attribute/Ele res).
If outcome is 3 good suffixes -> Suffixes cannot be changed -> Harvest Reforge Life until T2+ Maximum Life. If outcome is T2+ Life -> Bench craft last suffix -> Boat Exalt Slam the rest.
Alternative: Alteration spam for T1 Maximum Life (“Virile”) to recomb with T1 Light Radius (“Of Radiance”) -> Pray -> Boat Exalt slams.
Remember to have Hillock in your Betrayal board and do NOT filter his card “The Finishing Touch” for Fertile Catalyst.

8.7. Merc’s Helmet/Body Armour/Boots (with +1 Abyssal Socket)

Abyssal socket in gear for double fire resistances roll. Target: (1) Abyssal socket and (2) Fire resistance for every piece. You can certainly do this with a Hollow Fossil if you are into Delve. I am not. So here is what I did:

Farm Abyss with “Votive Hoard” for a 25% chance to drop rares with an Abyssal socket from Abyss chests. Annul if you want a clean suffix with only the Abyssal socket.
Craft your main bases — Majestic Pelt (84+), Syndicate’s Garb (84+), Velour Boots (84+) — for T1 fire res.
Recomb the above for +1 Abyssal socket & Fire Res.
Pray that it’s clean. Or you will have to Boat Annul, or Eldritch Annul.
Craft Hybrid Fire/Chaos res — this gets you very high fire resistance boots/chest/helmet for Enmity's Embrace.
Boat Exalt Slam the prefix. Mods to look for:

Helmet: Maximum Life
Body Armour: % Evasion and Flat Evasion
Boots: Movement speed

8.8. Double Fire res Abyss Jewels

What to look for on the Abyss Jewels: (1) Fire res and (2) Hybrid Fire res (can also settle with All Elemental res). Either Harvest Reforge Fire OR plain alteration-spam for Fire res -> then Boat Augment/Regal/Exalt for the other.
Best bases for hitting Fire res, ranked by odds (per CraftOfExile): Ghastly Eye Jewel (16.66%) → Hypnotic Eye Jewel (11.46%) → everything else (9.8%).
New: Merrick’s Ducat - This 3.29 Ducat adds a 5th mod to a jewel. The jewel comes out Corrupted, but doesn’t appear to risk removing/bricking existing mods based on live testing. Worth trying if you want to push for a triple-resistance jewel.

Abyssal socket icon

8.9. Blade Ambusher’s Weapons - 2x Gutting Knives

BUDGET:

Get 2x ilvl 73+ Gutting Knives
Either: Harvest Reforge Crit until T1 Crit Chance and T2+ Crit Damage.
Annul down to a clean base with only (1) Crit Chance + (2) Crit Damage and a maximum of 1 prefix.
Craft: Multimod → Hit Cannot Be Evaded → Attack Penetrate Elements/Inc Fire Damage & Ignite.

SLIGHTLY MORE EXPENSIVE:

Get A LOT OF ilvl 73+ Gutting Knives
Recomb T1 Crit Chance (“Incision”) with T1 Crit Multi (“Of Destruction”).
Regex to use is: “Incision|Destruction|Gutting Knife$”. Last bit is meant for an open suffix. When it lights up during Alt spamming, switch to Augment instead. Will save you some Alterations.
Craft: Multimod & Suffixes Cannot Be Changed.
Boat Veiled Orb to force a betrayal mod on prefix.
Look for a clean outcome. Or if you are lucky, one with a veiled mod plus “Elemental damage with attack”.
Bench craft “% Physical” to avoid Betrayal %Phys mod BEFORE you unveil.
Unveil and look for the following, in priority order: (1) Increased Fire Damage & Ignite Chance -> (2) Elemental Penetration -> (3) Extra Fire damage as chaos.
Bench craft: Multimod (again) & Hit cannot be evaded & any of the above 3 mods.

NOTE:

Why no attack speed? - These Blade Traps spin duration and hit frequency are fixed by the skill itself.
Why Inc Fire Damage better than Ele pen and Extra as chaos?

Ele pen has diminishing return, assuming you already stacked a lot of them for Enmity’s.
Extra as chaos is 7-10% MORE. Inc Fire Damage is 50-70% INCREASED. In a normal scenario, MORE always win since we have a bunch of INCREASED nodes in our passive tree. But for our Merc, who has no source of Increased Damage, the INCREASED actually win by a lot in this case.

Do we need “Hit cannot be evaded” on both weapons? - Yes. It is a local mod.

Dagger crafting reference

8.10. Blade Ambusher’s Belt

The new 3.29 prefix “Throw up to one additional trap if dual wielding” is craftable via the Rotmother’s Ducat, dropped from “Hazardous Depths” charts in The Sovereign, or obtained by converting a Changeling’s Ducat.
Alteration spam your Stygian Vise to have either (1) Elemental damage with attack or (2) Fire res
If you have spare bases, recomb the 2. If not, Boat Exalt slam and look for the other mod. It is okay to hit Light/Cold res too since we can harvest swap later.
Bench craft Hybrid Fire/Chaos res to try to fill all suffixes
Leave an open prefix for Rotmother’s Ducat slam.
About 1/20 chance you will hit “Throw up to one additional trap if dual wielding”.
Other trap mods are actually usable too. Settle with Trap AOE or Trap Trigger Radius until you have more juice to craft your BIS belt.

8.11. Blade Ambusher’s Gloves

Farm Infamous Combatant for “Random Projectile Speed” infamy gloves.
Alteration spam your Evasion based Velour Gloves for T1 Fire Res (need ilevel 84 for T1).
Recomb the 2. Pray that the outcome is the pair of Velour Gloves with 2 mods survived.

Alternative: Use Boat craft on a pair of Velour Gloves with Cyaxan’s Ducat for 3 random infamy mods.

If there is an open suffix -> Bench craft hybrid “Fire/Chaos res” -> Boat Exalt slam the rest.
If there is no open suffix -> Boat Exalt slam -> Bench craft “Area of Effect/ Area Damage”.
Eldritch Ichor/Ember for implicits as in image.

8.11. Combatant’s Weapons - 2x Jewelled Foils

Collect A LOT of Jewelled Foils (i77+).
Alt-spam for T1 Crit Chance, T1 Attack Speed & T1 Crit Multi. Regex: “Incision|Celebration|Destruction|Jewelled Foil$”. Last bit is for open suffix. So when it lights up, Augment it instead of Alteration.
Recomb for 2 Foils with a mix of 2/3 above mods (E.g. 1st Foil Crit Chance/ASPD & 2nd Foil Crit Chance/Crit Multi)
3.29 Brinehook/Pantheon recomb trick: Use Brinehook’s Ducats on both Foils. Choose any outcome.
Recomb the 2 new Foils, now with 3 suffixes. Enjoy your perfect 3 suffix Foil since Pantheon’s mods are NNN and cannot be kept for the final outcome.
Lock Suffixes + Boat craft Veiled Orb looking for either (1) Elemental Penetration or (2) Inc Fire Damage. Remember to bench craft Phys % to block mod before Unveiling.
Boat Exalt slam for Flat Cold/Lightning (for Taming abuse). Note: You need at least 1 Foil with Flat Cold as he should already had Wrath as an aura, unless there are other sources in his gear with Flat Cold (Gloves/Abyss Jewels). If it is the latter, pick Flat Lightning for more Shock value.
Bench Craft “Hit Cannot Be Evaded” on BOTH.

8.12. Combatant’s Gloves

Harvest Reforge Fire until T2+ Attack speed in a Velour Gloves base.

Alternative: Alteration spam T1 Fire Res & T1 Attack speed -> Recomb.

Cheap: Boat Exalt Slam and Bench craft the rest like in image.
Slightly more expensive:

Suffixes cannot be changed -> Boat craft Veiled Orb. Look for one that hits Prefix. Bench craft Mana to block mod before Unveiling.
Unveil for either (1) Projectile Speed/Dmg -> (2) Area/Area Dmg -> (3) Melee Strike Range. Boat Exalt slam and Bench craft the rest.

IMPORTANT: Spam Grand Eldritch Ember for “+3 target strike skill when Pinnacle in your presence”. Can settle with Greater Eldritch Ember for +2 like in image.
Q: Why there is no Fire Exposure eldritch in these gloves? - A: This is my gear at end game. I have another source of Fire Exposure through Animate Guardian wearing Elemental Army Support.

8.13. Luxury - AGoS Pseudo-6L (Essence of Horror & Elder base)

For a pseudo-six-link for your Animate Guardian of Smiting:

Base = Elder influence Gloves. Feed your Guardian maps to your Kingsmarch mappers. Note: You can Elder Exalt orb into your Leviathan Gauntlets, but given the intangibility per craft and how many failures these may occur, I would not recommend doing so.
Farm Essence of Horror using the two Essence-related Atlas notables (one near the start for +1 essence tier per map, one in the middle for +1 tier higher). Run Essence Scarabs if you have any.
When you see any purple essence, stack Vaal Orbs in your inventory and corrupt it for a chance of corrupted essences. Any of the 4 corrupted essences will work, since you can always Harvest swap them later to Essence of Horror. Can also keep Essence of Insanity if that’s your choice for the Merc’s body armour craft.
Apply the essence via the AllFlame boat craft method for 2 outcomes.
Look for “Socketed Gem supported by level 18/20 Faster Attack”
If prefixes are full, Boat Annul and pray. You need at least one open prefix here.
If there is open suffixes, either Boat slam looking for attribute or Lock suffixes + Harvest reforge Chaos for Chaos res.
Suffixes cannot be changed -> Harvest reforge Life for Maximum Life.

Note: The 3rd mod “70% to crit multi” in image does nothing to your AG since AG doesn’t have an attack tag. There is also another Elder mod for “supported by level xx Additional Accuracy”. However, unlike our merc, minions no long miss their attack anymore since 3.27.