How To Get A Head Start In POE 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur? - Try These 8 Top League Starter Builds

Hello exiles, the long-awaited Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur has finally arrived. With it comes a new endgame expansion, a new Ascendancy class, a reworked base game mechanic, and a ton of buffs to some underutilized skills.

These changes require a strong league starter to get ahead of the brand new economic reset. Here, we’re sharing some of the top league starter builds to help you get off to a better start at once you enter the new expansion!

1. Lightning Conduit Elementalist

Lightning Conduit Elementalist is shockingly one of the most underrated builds because it’s misunderstood for its 2-button playstyle. Lightning Conduit is more convenient and more powerful than most league starters with a 2-button playstyle.

It can place a secondary auto-aim skill, such as Storm Brand or Orb of Storms, at a time to spam our primary skill. For every 5% Shock you apply to the target, you deal 24% more multiplier damage. The more Shock you deal, the more DPS you gain.

This is a mid-tier build that works with basically everything except for fast-farming mechanics like Legion and Breaches.

2. Fire Trap Elementalist

The regular Fire Trap Elementalist may have lost its major strength after the nerf to Righteous Fire. But I fixed it up by gaining an extra layer of defense in the form of Life Regen, Spell Suppression, and Evasion to make up for the loss of extra clear speed.

The upside of this build is that it easily scales damage by reducing enemy Fire Resistance, directly increasing gem levels, and Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier. It’s great for boss fights and farming things like Essence.

The downside is the lack of clear speed. While your Fire Trap can ignite and diffuse an entire group of monsters, your Trap throws aren’t fast compared to crit-based trap skills.

This build is great for farming Harvest and Essence. Expedition and Blight can also scale on higher difficulties once you have at least 4 million DoT DPS.

3. Toxic Rain Pathfinder

I have to admit that Toxic Rain Pathfinder is definitely the fastest build on the list.

Not only that, it is more durable than most league starter bow builds because it is a Pathfinder with a bunch of flasks to choose from depending on your preferences.

This is probably another underrated build, probably because of the play style, but if you want to do some Heisting or Labbing, or farm gems, this is a build you can seriously consider.

It is easy to level, progresses quickly, the items required are craftable, and POE Currency required is quite low compared to other builds. What’s more, it also has a low upgrade cap because it doesn’t require expensive gear like most other builds.

This is a perfect build for farming gems and heisting. There is no limit to what it can run, but it is not ideal for dealing with major bosses in terms of damage.

4. Explosive Arrow Elementalist

Explosive Arrow Elementalist is one of the smoothest league starters for softcore players, who can deal a lot of damage with very little POE Currency investment.

It is perfect for those who run POE on a potato computer, as Ballista playstyle requires no timing and no aiming. As long as your Ballista is up, you can run and dodge enemy attacks. However, the downside is that it has a certain attack delay when mapping.

As a result, this build is perfect for Solo Self-Found, as it does not require Uniques of tier 1 rarity. However, this build is a bit complex and risky to execute if you don’t follow the correct guide, as you can make mistakes.

5. Oro’s Sacrifice Flicker Strike Slayer

One of the most powerful builds on the list is Oro’s Sacrifice Flicker Strike Slayer. Ideally, we want a rare sword with a lot of elemental DPS, but Oro’s Sacrifice is still the best budget-friendly choice until you start dealing with Pinnacle Bosses.

And, with the help of Corrupting Uniques, this build can be scaled further. But unlike most builds, this build must be upgraded with OP early leveling skills such as Splitting Steel. As long as you use Two Hand Swords or Axes with a lot of DPS, it is still an exceptional skill. So, I don’t recommend switching to Flicker Strike until you get Oro’s Sacrifice or Two Hand Swords with huge elemental damage.

For league starters, it’s not the best choice, but for a lot of players, it feels great to try it out. Its huge clear speed and single target damage let you take it anywhere.

6. Elemental Hit Of The Spectrum Deadeye

Elemental Hit of the Spectrum is a much better choice for leveling builds than Lightning Arrow. You don’t even need to rely on Ballista to deal with single targets. And its clear speed is very smooth, which can help you level quickly even against bosses.

On top of that, it’s really fun to play, and you can use Lightning Arrow until you switch to Transfigured Gem. Its AOE Explosions are very similar to LA’s AOE Lightning, extremely fast, easy to upgrade, and tanky, but requires some good POE items to work.

Therefore, it’s definitely a viable choice for the start of a league, and is perfect for Delirium, Legion, Breaches and anything except super tanky stuff.

7. Spectral Shield Throw Champion

Next on the list is Spectral Shield Throw Champion build.

The best part of this build is the massive buff to the quality items, especially Emperor’s Vigilance and other Hybrid Evasion Energy Shield. Combined with Seething Fury and Retaliation gems, this will make Shield build even more powerful.

Also, combining it with Perseverance, Heatshiver and Hrimsorrow, this build can be used very well on T16 maps.

As a league starter, it is quite durable and affordable, but not fast. The major disadvantage is that it has a low upper limit on the damage it can scale, like most of the upcoming OP melee builds in POE 3.25.

All in all, Spectral Shield Throw is a diverse build that doesn’t fit a specific league mechanic, but if you like Shield builds, you can try it.

8. Hexblast Mines Inquisitor

If this is not good enough, we have something more colorful! If you also like to focus on dealing more damage, Hexblast Mines Inquisitor is definitely your best choice to start Settlers of Kalguur league.

So why choose Hexblast instead of Hexblast of Contradiction? Both variants have the same amount of flat damage and the potential to inflict Elemental Ailments based on the critical chance. But their differences are also quite significant.

The first major difference is the extra base critical chance in Transfigured variant, which means you don’t need to use the Sandstorm Visage to account for this.

Another difference is that if the target is cursed, its hit damage is increased by 50%, which increases the damage of the entire skill itself by 25%.

The third notable difference is that Hexblast replaces all Chaos Damage Penetration and Negative Chaos Resistances. This is a major build-defining difference, which makes Inquisitor a perfect choice for the start of a League.

In summary, Hexblast Mines are great for farming Bosses, Essences, Harvests, and Sanctums, but are not recommended for quick cleanups in Legion. This is obviously because it moves too slowly.

That’s my list of the best builds I recommend for starting a League in POE 3.25. Of course, this is purely for my entertainment. You can do whatever you like. As long as you like it, it will always be OP for any ARPG league start! I hope you make your choice and have fun!