[Top 10] Path of Exile Best Atlas Passives That Are Powerful!

Updated:

18 Jun 2022

[Top 10] Path of Exile Best Atlas Passives That Are Powerful!

In Patch 3.17, GGG introduced the Atlas Passive Tree, and with it, came a sleuth of changes and unique interactions to bolster player’s experience with the endgame, and truly customize it to their heart’s content, and this mentality was only expanded and enhanced in Patch 3.18 Sentinel League, with the introduction of Atlas Passive Keystones!

And here are some of the best passives in the Atlas Tree!

10 – Test of Loyalty

Test of Loyalty Notable

This notable single-handedly changed how people would farm Betrayal, making it extremely easy and quick to guarantee a full board of three-star Members and Leaders. This, combined with a few other synergistic passives, is a fantastic way to squeeze the most potential out of Jun and farm Catarina as quick as possible!

What Makes Test of Loyalty Great:

Shortens the cycle of maps to build a safehouse by over 10 maps.
You now easily get to handpick which Members you want to be levelled up without RNG
You can farm tons of currency with Aisling and other favourite members.

Test of Loyalty full details:

Test of Loyalty, combined with Effective Leadership, will make it so you can thoroughly manipulate your board to cherry-pick who you want to become your safehouse leader and which safehouse without hassle.
This is a particularly strong strategy when you consider that Aisling Crafts are ridiculously coveted and strong, as well as being able to get a good Research Safehouse to further enhance your profits, with Leo, Tora, and It That Fled.

9 – Unspeakable Offensive

Unspeakable Offensive Notable

This notable may seem somewhat underwhelming at first glance, but when you stop to consider just how long Harbinger mobs take to be summoned, that cooldown recovery rate truly shines, and you get so much more monsters that you’re almost overwhelmed if you can’t handle the clearing.

What makes Unspeakable Offensive Great:

You don’t have to stop for as long to kill any Harbingers, so you get more Exp and loot quicker.
The conversion from shards to full currency works on every single type of shard they drop, even Exalted!
Best way to consistently farm Annulment and Ancient Orbs.

Unspeakable Offensive full details:

This notable, combined with Ominous Arrival means that not only do you constantly have a guaranteed Harbinger in your maps, but they are quick, strong, and extremely profitable to do!
And if you spec into First Wave (which you should if you went to the trouble, it’s right there!), then you’ll sometimes (more often than you’d think) get Harbinger Lords, which just shower you in currency and loot, and especially Exalted Shard, which are just wonderful!

8 – Contested Development

Contested Development Notable

If you’re the type of person who always hated doing Alva missions because of the fact that you can get really unlucky with Architects’ positioning, and how frustrating it can get, try and spec this notable and see what you think. You’ll go from hating Alva to loving that adrenaline junky, Indiana Jones-esque lady in no time!

What Makes Contested Development Great:

Streamlines your temple generation and you can more often than not always have a good temple to run.
Fantastic for generating Locus of Corruption and Doryani’s Institute, to double-corrupt Items and gems.
One of the most profitable and guaranteed mechanics to use your Master Missions with.

Contested Development full details:

When combined with Resource Reallocation, you have free reign to essentially mould your temple to your heart’s desire. There are strategies involved in always being able to make at least a Locus of Corruption or a Doryani’s Institute every 4-5 maps, which will net you anything from 100 to 200 chaos orbs in SC Trade!
The beauty for people who do not enjoy Alva and Incursions, is that you can hoard tons of missions, allocate these two notables, and simply burn through all your missions in a day, selling all of your temple cards, and just re-speccing those notables out of your Atlas Passive Tree when you’re done!

7 – Heart of the Grove

heart of the Grove Notable

As it’s namesake, the Heart of the Grove is how you’ll be able to find a Sacred Blossom and Fight Oshabi in the easiest way possible. While Harvest is a contentious topic, because of all the drama and changes made in the past, this remains the best way to farm Oshabi and get some good Harvest crafts.

What Makes Heart of the Grove Great:

Lots of extra crafts that you didn’t expect.
Easiest access to Oshabi fight.

Heart of the Grove full details:

Harvest remains one of the strongest crafting tools in the game, and Heart of the Grove not only allows you to have more crafts every few Gardens or so, but you are also guaranteed an Oshabi fight, which can have one of the best uniques in the game, in the form of Forbidden Shako.
When combined with Bumper Crop, you’ll be swimming in crafts, because with 8 crafts available, and the possibility of an extra one for 10, you can essentially, in a lucky scenario, have over 7 plots alive, all filled with crafts!

6 – Syncretism

Syncretism Notable

Haven’t you ever watched a PoE streamer with Headhunter, going at 1000 miles per hour and wondered “boy, I wish I could go that fast and deal that much damage”? Well, that’s how it feels when you allocate Syncretism and grabs some acceleration, brutal and echo shrines!

What Makes Syncretism Great:

Just a pure fun node that rewards you in every way.
You get to go as fast as Sonic.
You’ll deal a lot more damage and be a lot tankier just by virtue of clicking a few shrines!

Syncretism full details:

The best thing about this is that it’s such a cheap investment that you’ll get the full benefits instantly, and it’s one of the most fun notables in the whole tree, and by far one of the most noticeable.
When combined with every other Shrine notable (except the Covetous Shrine, that one is horrible), you’ll have 50% Shrine effect, over 50% Shrine Duration, and a guaranteed Shrine per zone, which then will grant you two different effects per Shrine!
This, combined with The Gull Unique, boosts your Shrine effect to the roof, as well as granting you tons of duration. And with Domination Kirac Mods, you can add 4 Shrines to your map, for a minimum of 8 Shrine effects!

5 – Crystal Resonance

Crystal Resonance Notable

This notable single-handedly changed the crafting meta because of how popular and easy to craft with essence is, and how accessible they’ve become. A node that not only guarantees an Essence will be changed when you corrupt, but 90% of the times they’ll be doubled? That’s an infinite farming potential right there, and that’s exactly what this node provides!

What Makes Crystal Resonance Great:

Cheap and affordable Essences.
You can craft your own gear with nary an issue.
Super easy and fun to play with.

Crystal Resonance full details:

When you combine Crystal Resonance with Amplified Energies and Crystal Lattice, you can reach over 7 mods Essence mobs, and the likelihood of one of those Essences being of Shrieking tier is almost guaranteed, literally doubling the number of essences you get.
And since you’ll be getting almost two guaranteed Essence packs every map with those nodes, you’ll be swimming in Remanent of Corruptions, which you then can use to corrupt those major 7 or 8-mod Essences in the hopes of converting them to the last tier, Essence of Horror, Insanity, Delirium and Hysteria, which can sell for up to 30 Chaos each!

4 – Enduring Influence

Enduring Influence Notable

While it may not seem at first, this node is massive. In a world where the highest juicers in the game will always have 4 Sextant modifiers running in their maps, missing out on the potential for an extra charge is ludicrous and expensive. With this allocated, you literally get 33% more monsters, loot, and EXP per Sextant. That’s an insane bonus if you think about how hard it is to get Pack Size in your maps!

What Makes Enduring Influence Great:

Great value per point.
Can be used to make massive profits
Will increase the value of your sextants by 33%.

Enduring Influence full details:

If you want to roll Charged Compasses for profit, no one will ever buy them with only 3 charges, so, you’ll need it to make a lot of money. Rolling Runic Monsters or Corrupted monsters is a sure-fire way of churning a good profit.
Even if you don’t want to sell the enchants, you’ll still be improving your overall mapping by 33% with a single notable. There isn’t a single node in the tree that can do as much by itself!

3 – Wrath of the Cosmos

Wrath of the Cosmos Notable

Another one of the new Keystones, the Wrath of the Cosmos is the ultimate kill or be killed passive, where risk vs reward is magnified to the stratosphere.

What Makes Wrath of the Cosmos Great:

Massive production of Eldritch Currency at the cost of damage taken.
If you can handle the downsides, you’ll make insane profits.
While it is the riskiest node in the tree, the rewards follow suit if you can handle the extra damage!

Wrath of the Cosmos full details:

In 3.17, getting a large quantity of Grand Eldritch Currency was expensive and nearly impossible. You’d have hundreds of Lesser for each dozen of Grand. Now, with this node, with only four Eldritch Altars used in a zone (which is quite common to reach, almost guaranteed), you’d be making it 100% guaranteed to duplicate the number of Currency, as well as increasing their tier to Grand.
This comes with a major, major downside, of taking 25% increased damage per altar. With only 4, you’re essentially taking double damage, from all sources. With 8, you’d be making triple copies for each Ichor or Ember, but you’d essentially be taking over 200% increased damage, and there aren’t many builds that can handle that.
If you can, however, you’ll be one of the richest people in the game in no time!

2 – Throw the Gauntlet

Throw the Gauntlet Notable

Yet another one of the new Keystones added in Patch 3.18, Throw the Gauntlet enables the player to fight against Uber Maven, which is a much harder fight than regular Maven, and the rewards are immense. Not only you’re guaranteed an Elevated Sextant (which almost pays for the entire Maven Invitation), but you get access to the newest Awakened Exceptional Gems!

What Makes Throw the Gauntlet Great:

Guaranteed Elevated Sextant if you kill Uber Maven.
The only place that can drop Awakened Exceptional Gems (Enlighten, Empower, Enhance)
Has new Uniques and is by far the most profitable Boss in the game right now!

Throw the Gauntlet full details:

Being able to guarantee an Elevated Sextant not only makes up part of the cost for a Maven Writ, but it means that Elevated Sextants are now easy to acquire (and you have a chance to get another one, by the way) and you can bulk sell them to juicers at a premium, if you know what you’re doing.
The new Awakened Exceptional Gems (and boy, is that a mouthful) are identical to regular Exceptional Gems, with the difference that they can reach a level further, so you can further improve your build and get higher levels that hadn’t been possible to achieve before!

1 – Stream of Consciousness

Stream of Consciousness Notable

Truly a magnificent Keystone because of the direction GGG is taking the Atlas Passive Tree, granting players a higher level of agency in choosing which types of content they’ll face. With this allocated, you can improve your maps without any investment, just by virtue of allocating it.

What Makes Stream of Consciousness Great:

Perfect for early-game, you get more loot without any investment.
Alc-and-go strategies are buffed massively by this
More loot, more exp, more money.

Stream of Consciousness full details:

One of the biggest issues in the early game is that scarabs are hard to come by, and you rarely have the choice of scarabs, when you do get them. This Keystone allows you to ignore them and hoard every one you get until you can change your strategy and drop this keystone.
Many Alchemy and go strategies forgo the use of scarabs and prefer that you rush as fast as possible through the map, and in this way, you can still use Kirac’s map mods and Sextants to further juice your maps without much investment at all.
This promotes a thoughtful Atlas Tree that lets the players have full agency over what content they want to do and how, and how to magnify them. It’s a fantastic prelude of GGG’s intention and desire with the Endgame, and to me, it signifies a lot more than just the node itself.

You May Also Be Interested In:

Email us about this article

Bruno C.

Bruno comes from the rainforests of the Brazilian jungle, battling beasts and seeking wonders, he has developed a thirst for adventure and a need to chronicle his findings!

Gamer Since:

1997

Favorite Genre:

RPG

Currently Playing:

Path of Exile

Top 3 Favorite Games:

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, League of Legends, Crysis 2-Maximum Edition