PoE 3.20: Soulthirst Beats Headhunter

"Headhunter is in a pretty terrible state outside of 5-way farming. The existence of more mods doesn't make up for the massive decrease in power per mod, and it sucks." – Veteran But Bad

Introduce

● Headhunter lost most of its power from the removal of Archnemesis, as rare mods are around 1/4 power.

● I have been farming the Formed and was searching for a way to make the run as fast as possible.

● I discovered Soulthirst and discovered that having a 40-second Soul Eater Buff was more overpowered than any Headhunter buffs.

Soulthirst – How it Works

● Soulthirst grants your Soul Eater during any flask effect.

● The first flask used will give the soul eater buff, so you want the longest-duration flask to be pressed first.

● You lose souls gained from Soul Eater when you use a flask. Soulthirst does not remove the buff and only the buff stacks.

● Belt has reduced flask effect duration, life, and all resistances.

Choose the Right Flasks

● Certain Utility Flasks have a much longer duration, with Bismuth Flask topping out at 8.5 seconds.

● Some unique Flasks have built-in increased duration, like Sorrow of the Divine.

● Wise Oak, Progenesis, Oriath's End, and Taste of Hate have a high duration while being extremely useful.

Scaling Flask Duration

● Can get 28% Quality on Flask with Hillock as Captain of Research.

● Medium Cluster Jewels can grant a 6% Increased Flask Effect Duration with it being affected by a 35% Increased Effect.

● Distilled Perfection grants a 20% Increased Flask Effect Duration

● Solstice Vigil and Self-Curse Temporal Chains grant other effects on cursed enemies that expire % slower.

● Additive and caps at 75%

Soulthirst Stigma

● Most people think of Soulthirst as a meme build that requires you to clear the map in 1 minute or less, or the map is bricked.

● However, Soulthirst can be treated as a 45-second Soul Eater Buff on demand for the cost of some passive points and 2 Medium Cluster Jewels.

● Flask Effect Duration is also great for bossing as you have permanent flask uptime as long as you kill the boss in under 4o Seconds.

● All about finding the perfect balance between how much you trade-off in order to make Soulthirst work.

Final Thoughts

● This league is perfect for Soulthirst due to the prevalence of Alch and Go and speed-running maps for Sanctum Rooms.

● Headhunter is still best in class for legion farming, 5 Ways, and Simulacrum.

● Soulthirst is incredibly underrated and may be insane for league start scenarios.

● Fun to find the perfect balance of investment into flask duration and keeping your character's power level without Soul Eater buffs.