Whether you are an old player who switched to POE 2 from the original game, or a new player who was attracted after the early access release, I believe you have heard about the extremely bad unique item system in Path of Exile 2 before starting Dawn of the Hunt. This is not only because their drop rate is quite low, but more importantly, they are flashy and play a minor role in the endgame challenges, so many players feel cheated and POE 2 currency invested in these unique items is gone!
But the new unique items brought in the recent patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt are expected to break the players’ previous stereotypes. Here, we will have to mention one of the unique items with interesting attribute bonuses, Redblade Banner, which is an item that has returned from POE 1, and its changes and effects are enough to shock players!
Redblade Banner Stats
This item in Path of Exile 1 is closely related to Warcries. While Monster Power mechanic was the core of Warcries mechanic in POE 1 and 2, the system in POE 2 extends further and interacts with a number of other mechanics to make this new Unique Shield quite interesting.
Redblade Banner offers a pretty good base block chance. With a 30% increase in max block chance, this shield’s base block chance goes from 26% to 33%, thanks to its block chance bonus, which is quite good indeed.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any max life, which means you’ll have to buy POE 2 Currency at POECurrency.com to get some max life for your build, or else even the most powerful power won’t be able to withstand a single fatal attack from the enemy.
Don’t worry too much though, as it does offer some power, so you’ll get a small life bonus from it as well.
But perhaps more importantly, the role of power here is quite necessary for builds that don’t focus on power. This is because Redblade Banner’s monster power modifiers are closely tied to the trigger mechanic and energy mechanic, and focus only on the right node of the passive tree. This trait allows such builds to invest more in Dexterity and Intelligence to get more evasion, energy shield equipment and spells, a win-win!
Monster Power Mechanics
Now let’s talk about Monster Power mechanics. Since monster power in PoE 2 is slightly different from PoE 1, monsters are given a power value at a baseline level that is determined by their difficulty relative to other monsters.
For example, the weakest monsters, such as Beetle Boss in PoE 2, have a power value of 0.5, while some stronger or more dangerous monsters may have a power value of 2 or even 3.
Importantly, this baseline power value does not include monster rarity, but uses monster rarity as a multiplier. For common monsters, the multiplier is 1. Therefore, their default power value is directly the final value of any monster power mechanic. But for magic or blue monsters, their default power value can be multiplied by 2, while for rare or yellow monsters, their default power value is multiplied by 5. Finally, there are unique monsters, such as map bosses or new Rogue Exiles, which always have a default power value of 20.
Infernal Cry
The monster power mechanic is now used by many other skills and systems in PoE 2. For example, Infernal Cry is a Warcry that contains two elements that interact with monster power. Both benefit greatly if the monster is treated as having double power.
First, Warcry will enhance subsequent attacks, gaining additional fire damage based on the total power of all monsters in its radius, up to a cap. So, combined with Redblade Banner, you will be able to reach the cap more easily.
However, Infernal Cry also has a secondary mechanic that takes advantage of the power mechanic: monsters that are within Infernal Cry’s effect radius will be marked as burning, and if they die, they will also explode, dealing fire damage to the surrounding area.
The fire damage caused by the explosion is based on the gem level of Infernal Cry, and will cause more damage based on the power of the exploded monster, with each additional power increasing the fire damage caused by 10%. Therefore, doubling monster power with Redblade Banner will greatly increase the explosion damage, which is especially effective for easily dealing with rare monsters in the middle of the group. You only need to click a few times, and the monsters in the middle of the group will explode one after another, and a large amount of POE 2 Currency will fall like snowflakes!
Applying Triggered Skills
But monster power is not only used for Warcries mechanism in POE 2. In fact, it is currently mainly used for the energy system of triggered skills.
In Path of Exile 2 0.1.0 stage, GGG added a power mechanism to the triggered skills of these triggered gems, so now you can get energy based on monster power.
Ideally, triggers are more useful in boss battles and are not so exaggerated when you trigger less frequently in normal map games. But Redblade Banner will treat enemies present as having twice their normal power value, which means that many triggered gems can get twice the energy through more frequent triggers.
So with this setup you’re limited to one-handed weapons, which means you get more procs, but at the expense of spell damage bonuses like Focus.
Combined With Seeing Stars
If you want to really proc a lot of spells, though, you can combine Redblade Banner with Seeing Stars, which has a special modifier that doubles the energy generation.
But again, while you can proc a lot of spells, and there will be a lot of spells being cast, you don’t have a damage bonus in your main or off-hand equipment slots, which is arguably not ideal, as most of the damage bonus comes from those slots.
Final Thoughts
Beyond that, Redblade Banner also has some other less impactful modifications in POE 2, such as some increased stun thresholds, which is nice given the recent stun changes, but nothing to write home about, and some increased armor values that aren’t particularly useful on top of the base armor.
But overall, this unique item is really fun to use in POE 2, especially in terms of energy generation for procs. As such, I look forward to seeing future expansions of the monster power mechanic, which may provide even more use cases for this unique shield!
