For surviving and excelling in the Test of Cunning Barya trial in Path of Exile 2, builds that emphasize high mobility, crowd control, trap avoidance, and Honour management tend to shine. Here are key skills and gear recommendations commonly favored for this cunning and trap-heavy environment:
Recommended Skills
- Movement Skills:
- Flicker Strike, Dash, or Leap Slam to quickly evade traps, pressure plates, and enemy attacks.
- Blink Arrow or Teleport variants provide instant repositioning to avoid danger.
- Crowd Control Skills:
- Skills like Bear Trap, Freezing Pulse, or Temporal Chains help control enemy movement and reduce incoming damage.
- Totems and minions are useful for dealing damage while keeping your character safe.
- Trap Mitigation or Disablement:
- Skills or jewels that mitigate or nullify trap damage help enormously in rooms with many pressure plates and environmental hazards.
- Damage Skills:
- High single-target burst skills for the boss fight such as Explosive Shot, Scorching Ray, or Bladeblast. Fast-paced clear skills like Essence Drain or Lightning Arrow work well in clearing rooms quickly.
Recommended Gear
- Movement Speed: Boots and relics that boost movement speed, sometimes combining with flask effects.
- Honour Resistance: Gear that increases Honour resistance helps mitigate damage to your vital resource in the trial.
- Trap Damage Reduction: Armor or relic bonuses that reduce damage from traps and hazards.
- Life and Energy Shield: Prioritize survivability stats since the trial involves sustained damage from traps and monsters.
- Relics: Equip relics that increase movement speed, provide trap immunity, restore Honour, or boost resource regeneration to maintain sustainability.
- Sacred Water Boosts: Items or relics that increase Sacred Water gains, providing more currency to buy helpful upgrades during the trial.
Additional Tips
- Hybrid builds combining strong crowd control with high agility perform well, handling both enemies and environmental threats.
- Minion-focused or totem-based builds allow you to delegate damage dealing while focusing your character on positioning and survivability.
- Gear and skills that improve resistances to conditions found in the trial, like burning or curses, reduce downtime and risk.