This build is designed with the use of Poet's Pen in mind. It can be lvld using Arc as self-cast but is designed with the use of 2 PP wands making it slightly expensive to get going, however, once you've acheived 2 of those wands the rest of the gear can be VERY cheap to purchase. This build uses Lightning Warp and Arc, socketed in 2x The Poet's Pen wands, to be able to speed-obvious maps. Although this is Not really a cheap or beginner build (startup price of 1-2 exalted orbs), it ought to be easy to make use of this character like a league-starter and gradually acquire all the necessary pieces.

Updated for Patch 3.5

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

Estimated budget: moderately low

Poet's Pen is one of the most popular wands in Path of Exile. It provides unique trigger mechanic which makes your attacks cast spells socketed in Poet's Pen. On top of that, Poet's Pen increases the level of socketed Gems, making them more potent as your progress. It makes Poet's Pen one of the best leveling items in PoE (you can use Poet's Pen starting at level 12) and also, an extremely powerful weapon even in the late game.

You can also find the full list of our other Path of Exile Builds right here: Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

Like most Poet's Pen builds, our build uses Frenzy as the primary attack. Frenzy has high Attack Speed and generates Frenzy Charges for even more Attack Speed(and damage). In this build, you aim to reach 4 Attacks per second (Poet's Pen has an internal cooldown of 250ms so reaching four attacks is optimal) and with each attack, you will trigger spells socketed in your wands. Because of high Attack Speed, it's easy to quickly reach 20 stacks of Blade Vortex, which combined with Frenzy and Bladefall casts can easily apply over 100 Poisons on a single enemy while fully buffed.

For defenses, this build utilizes Dodge Chance, Evasion, and moderately high Life, which should allow you to farm all the Path of Exile's content with proper investment in gear.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

Poet's Pen is one of the best leveling weapons in Path of Exile. You can wield them from level 12, and you don't have to worry about the weapon slots forever. Merely upgrade other gear, which should increase your defenses (top priority) and grant Attack Speed and Spell Damage bonuses.

Suggested leveling Gem setups:

Bandits:

We suggest killing all the Bandits for two additional Passive Points

Leveling Skill Trees:

32 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Trickery 2) Fangs of the Viper 3) Fatal Toxins 4) Acrobatics

59 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Toxic Strikes 2) Thick Skin 3) Heart of Oak 4) Harrier

Recommended leveling items:

Poet Pen With Cast On Dmg Taken Build Free

4. Final Skill tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

113 Points Final Skill Tree
113 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Noxious Strike
2. Toxic Delivery
3. Unstable Infusion
4. Deadly Infusion

Poet Pen With Cast On Dmg Taken Build Youtube

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Lunaris 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%; 1% increased Movement Speed for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%

Minor God: Soul of Gruthkul 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each Hit you've taken Recently up to a maximum of 5%

5. Final Gems links

5. Gear Setup

Poet's Pen builds extremely powerful and does not require any expensive gear. You can easily play this build with just four links and grind your way up. Below you will find all the required and recommended gear. Like most of our builds, we try to list only moderately cheap and easily obtainable items.

If you are looking for cheap PoE Currency or Unique Items, we would love to invite you to our market section, which you can access via the links on top of this page.

Our recommended items will:

1. Cap your resistances
2. Give you enough DPS/Life to start mapping successfully

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.