Path of Exile 3.25: Settlers of Kalguur "Boat League" Review - League Mechanics, Frostblades of Katabasis Slayer & Righteous Fire Chieftain

It isn't often I do reviews or updates on PoE this often but I wanted to recap what was the easiest and deepest league I've played in, but also frustrating. As stated previously, I usually play a new league for 1-3 weeks. I get to about 10-20 achievements and call it (usually around 2 void stones and finished atlas). Starting at Affliction I started getting deeper into PoE and finished 31 achievements that league and 28 achievements in 3.24. In 3.25 I have hit 34 achievements. 

League Starter: I still have a philosophy to never play the same build twice. I'm also still playing through all the ascendancies. You can see my previous post for every build I've played so far, but this league I really wanted a melee start because of all the buffs. 

I then settled on Cyclone Slayer because I've never done slayer and I saw multiple build guides for shockwave cyclone which were decent pre-melee buffs. I leveled using sunder and it went amazing. The build was almost exactly the same as Zizaran's slayer slam build, which is a bit of a bait build after you get into maps but it's great in campaign. For a walkthrough of the campaign see my PoE general leveling guide here: https://mastuh.blogspot.com/2023/08/path-of-exile-poe-leveling-league.html

Then I swapped to cyclone and it was painful. Cyclone is very tough to play. It's slow, it's not safe, and it requires too much gear and passive nodes to get the most out of it. I almost quit the league at white maps when I was struggling, and I've never struggled in white maps since my first league when I didn't know the game. 

After watching a video from bigducks I realized there was a behind the scenes build from Rue that utilize frost blades of katabasis. However, I never found a legit guide for it so I looked at a bunch of builds on PoEninja and built out my own version of this build (POB here:  https://pobb.in/ImBG2xqwe3J4). 

Something to know about this frost blades build is that it's very good until you get to bossing. The build relies so heavily on building charges that going into a boss fight cold causes it to struggle. It's also not overly tanky because of that and the single target damage isn't amazing. However, it's the easiest map clear I've ever done. Once I got the awakened support gem I didn't even have to worry about elemental reflect and could literally do any map modifications. I was juicing maps above 100% item qty on all my map runs and didn't struggle at all. Very rarely would I hit an enemy who was too hard to kill, other than a super juiced map boss which happened a couple times. 

The gear for this build is extremely cheap. You can get most of it in white maps. The jewels are icing on the cake. I didn't get them until I was deep into red maps. Prior to that I was using yellow viridian jewels. The build itself is basically a 1 button build, aside from an occasional war cry cast and the use of a movement ability. 

Eventually you will want to transition to a claw/shield build. That version of the build I never tried. You really need a perfectly crafted claw and shield to replace the gear you have. However, if you plan on going above void stones you will have to transition to this end game version. I quite the league before that so I cannot attest to it but poeninja has many builds to copy from for that. 

Now let's talk about Settlers of Kalguur. The QoL changes to the game were great, especially the currency exchange which makes currency trading so much better for everyone. However, the gold costs for some exchanges are a bit annoying. I find myself doing lots of smaller exchanges to avoid the thousands of gold the larger trades cost (i.e. trading an item for 100 chaos might cost 3k gold but trading it for a divine would cost 300 gold). I hope GGG fixes this, but this gets into why I really dislike this league and hope most of it doesn't go core, gold sinks. 

This league was designed around people who play PoE 24/7 and can keep up with the gold costs of your settlement. The costs are extremely high to do anything productive with the town that you find yourself constantly managing your town instead of playing the game. However, the less time you're in maps making gold the harder it is to keep up. If you want my advice, save up 250k gold first and then dump it into your settlement. Upgrade everything as far as possible. Ensure you max out mining first because it actually becomes a gold maker for you. When it comes to boats ensure you do about 100 of each resource and dust and send to the closer ports. Don't worry about the items the ports are actually requesting other than the challenge related to that. By this mini shipment method you will have far less risk, far more rewards/hour, and will stack up the runes you need to finish enchanting achievements. 

Overall 3.25 brought a host of great QoL changes, buffs to melee, and an interesting new league mechanic. However, I hope Kalguur doesn't go core other than the currency exchange and gold respec. Good luck exiles! 

Update: I played Pohx's righteous fire chieftain for the mini-event (Necro Settlers) and I have to admit, it's not good. I think RF is dead. It'll get you through the campaign and early maps fine, but juiced red maps are difficult and bosses take forever. The build is very bad at taking on bosses and archnemesis enemies and  can die easily in juiced maps because you have to be near some dangerous enemies to damage them. Overall I only recommend it as a true league starter but once you get your 2 voidstones then you are topped out.

Path of Exile 3.23: Affliction League Review (league mechanics, my build, and the fun)

 It isn't often I do reviews or updates on PoE this often but I wanted to recap what was the most fun and deepest league I've played in. Usually in PoE I play for 1-3 weeks per league. I get to about 10-12 achievements and call it (usually around yellow/red maps). That was the case in about 10 leagues. The previous league I played through all the maps then called it. This league (Affliction) I made it to 31 achievements/challenges completed. 

League Starter: I have a philosophy to never play the same build twice. I'm also still playing through all the ascendancies. You can see my previous post for every build I've played so far, but this league I settled on Hierophant because I have never done a totem build. I settled on ice spear because it looked legitimately like it could 1 shot bosses, and it didn't disappoint once I got the gear I needed to make it work (spoiler: it's very expensive to make it OP). 

The TLDR for ice spear totem build is you have to use soul mantle chest which curses you when your totems die or are re-summoned but gives you a free level 20 spell totem so you can stack an extra support gem. 

As a result I decided to level using freezing pulse until I had the currency to get curse effect reduction gear. There is 1 passive that you can get, you can get it on jewels that you slot into your passive tree, and you can craft it onto rings. Eventually I got the currency to buy the jewel that made me unaffected by curses and did extra damage per curse on me. This is when my build took off. Unless map bosses were super juiced, everything died instantly as seen in this video from a youtuber who also used the build. 

The downside of this build is you have to stack so much offense to make it worthwhile that your defenses hurt a lot. You can take maybe 1-3 hits before you die so I would not recommend this build for hardcore. I also wouldn't recommend it for SSF as the gear you need to make it work is difficult to find without trades. If you'd like to see my build take a look at my PoB here.

Now my review of the league. This was the best league mechanic I've seen, even with some of its faults. The ability to choose to juice every level/map you're on is huge. You have a choice at the start of every level and map to go into the forest, collect wisps, maybe kill some random encounters or find a vendor, and then everything you gathered juices the level just like the sentinel league did. This will make enemies far more dangerous but the loot explosions it created were awesome. I made about 50 divine in 2 weeks without much effort at all. Streamers were dropping that in a couple maps. I also loved the extra ascendancies that came with the league. I chose the charms one because it gave me 3 extra passive slots essentially and extra inventory space, which was awesome. 

Personally, I'm bummed GGG was not a fan of this league. They felt they over juiced the rewards and made the game too easy. I'm worried we'll never see something this fun again. I can understand hardcore PoE players and devs hating on it, but if they truly want to continue to steal Diablo players then they really need to embrace software trade league players getting rewarded for their time. People who don't like it can play SSF or ruthless.

Path of Exile: All My Builds So Far, Oldest to Newest

As indicated in the last article I have played 10 leagues of PoE and have learned a lot. My last build is by far the best I've played; as I have a much better understanding of the game, but I have 10 builds here that have different levels of playability. With some tweaking, some of these could potentially turn into a good build for others in future leagues. 

1. Blazing Salvo - Fireball - Elementalist (5/10): In my first ever PoE league (Ritual) I decided I wanted to make a fire sorc, but couldn't find a legit build at the time, so I tried to make my own. It was a harsh reality check due to my ignorance about the game and how it works. I struggled through the campaign and early mapping, before asking friends to power level me, so I could try to fix my build. I was able to somewhat salvage it as I learned how spellslinger worked, but I was so defeated that I gave up on this league. I do believe there's still a way to fix this build, but never wanted to re-visit it. Here's the PoB for those interested: https://pobb.in/Yw4Z0HlnVVYm

2. Essence Drain (ED) - Contagion - Trickster (7/10): In Ultimatum a friend highly recommended I try ED contagion. Typically you'd see this build on something like an occultist, but at the time Trickster seemed like a more survivable version. Back then occultist wasn't that great and trickster was pretty good with the ghost shrouds. I wouldn't say this exact build is still viable after the trickster re-work in 2022, but PoE-Vault recently created a viable version. Clear speed was decent but boss damage sucked.  Here's the PoB I used for anyone interested: https://pobb.in/eFgYsqQXWTQI

3. Arc Miner - Saboteur (6/10): In Expedition I decided to run an arc miner. My friend and I had a competition to each make our own version of a mines/traps build to see whose was better. I think mine ended up going further, but his was an easier and smoother experience, especially during leveling. For me this miner was VERY clunky. Having to stop for a couple seconds to toss all your mines and then detonating them twice was a bit annoying. The great part about expedition was I could setup my mines around the bombs and then detonate them once the enemies spawned. Since then saboteur has been re-worked and is arguably worse. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/1gfxrzhoujzH

4. Toxic Rain - Champion (9/10): Toxic rain is one of the most popular skills in the game, especially for leveling any bow build. In this instance I watched Zizaran and Asmodeus play this and decided to play it. I always tweak my builds to my playstyle for the way I play, and also for the items I know I can find/afford compared to what a streamer uses or crafts. This was a fun build and an easy league to use it in. Toxic rain has very good clear, and ok boss damage; while champion is incredibly survivable. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/bmX6X2jvqLHh

5. Absolution - Necromancer (8/10): In Archnemesis I wanted to play a minion build and I heard GhazzyTV is the minion master of PoE so I checked out some of his builds. I landed on Absolution, which is a very good build for league start and bossing, perfect for archnemesis. I played a tweaked version of Ghazzy's build because I couldn't afford the exact items and doryani's is a weird playstyle to understand with the lightning resist. I also swapped in a vaal summon skeletons over animate guardian or raise zombie. I had no major issues with this build and played through the game just fine with it. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/9gc45sY-V0m_

6. Lightning Strike - Raider (8/10): In Sentinel league I wanted something tanky with good single target DPS. I decided to try a lightning strike raider build and it didn't disappoint. I was able to carry my friend through the campaign and mapping with this build. It is a bit annoying to play a melee build in PoE, but this one was probably the least annoying one I have experienced. However, it took a little bit to understand how trinity and nightblade worked at first. Fuzzy Duckzy has a decent guide and here's the PoB I used: https://pobb.in/i9MmAkcIU3kp

7. Purifying Flame - Inquisitor (5/10): For Lake of Kalandra I wanted to theory craft my own build. People kept trying to push me to a Pohx righteous fire build, but that seemed boring to me and it's just way too popular. As a result I went all in on a high life regen concept where I'd maximize my use of consecrated ground for damage and healing. Overall I could survive and tank anything in the game without taking any damage but I struggled with DPS. If you want to be unkillable and do very slow DPS then this isn't such a bad build, but you could build into a slightly less tanky build and blow through content faster. Here's the PoB if interested: https://pobb.in/u3hGGEFY-oAG

8. Herald of Agony - Juggernaut (9/10): In Forbidden Sanctum I chose an interesting combo of storm brand and herald of agony. This is a very safe, very tanky, and great DPS choice. I completely destroyed all content in the game ONCE I FIGURED IT OUT. If you do not understand how HoA works let me explain it. You need a chance to poison enemies to be able to spawn your scorpion. You also have to have your herald active, which reserves a ton of your mana. Then your damage over time (poison damage, chance to poison, and poison length) needs to be very high. This ensures you can always spawn your agony and it does max DPS. The storm brand is just an easy and safe way to apply a poison. Zizaran gave me this idea in his build guide here. Here's the PoB I used: https://pobb.in/L8mv8UvqS4k5

9. Holy Relic - Scion (4/10): For Crucible league I wanted to play a Scion. I heard it's complicated and there's not many guides for it. One build I wanted to try was a cast when damage taken ice spear build that looked awesome. However, the build was nerfed into the ground and required very expensive gear to keep it working (guess I missed it by a league). Instead I tried to make my own build based on a variation of CaptainLance9's build. The leveling experience with righteous fire actually worked great, until Scion's ability to maintain life regen hits max and then you can't maintain it and RF kills you (happened around lvl 40-50 to me). Once I swapped to the holy relic cyclone portion of the build it was clunky. The sound effects are cool but the build is slow and requires being in melee range with a class not very well suited to be in melee range. I also topped out in red maps as the damage was very good but survivability sucked. When you're stuck spinning in cycle there's not an easy time reacting to major potential damage. There's a huge budget to do well in end game. Here's the PoB for those interested: https://pobb.in/XJ2XgfnhaO37 

10. Impending Doom - Occultist (10/10): In the current league, Challenge of the Ancestors, I decided to try an impending doom occultist. This was a build I almost ran during crucible but didn't. I wish I discovered this sooner because this is by far the best build I've run. It has enough survivability that you get a second to react to damage but the DPS output is huge and safe. You can spam your curses from range safely, you can flame dash everywhere, and you can allow your DoT do the work for you while you stay safe. With this build I destroyed every map in the game through T16 and killed Eater and Exarch. The only content in the entire game I struggled with was expedition because it has immune to curses as a modifier sometimes and you literally can do nothing against it. I must admit I'm still piecing together how to gear it in the end game but here's my current PoB: https://pobb.in/xKRLBCEUmGUd 

Path of Exile (PoE) Leveling & League Starting Guide

I'm a no name person who doesn't stream and I'm no PoE expert. However, I have successfully navigated the PoE campaign and early mapping in every league since 2020. 

There's been 10 leagues I've participated in now starting from Ritual and I've learned A LOT about the game and how it works since then. This guide is intended to help you get through the campaign and leveling process efficiently, without the need of a carry, and will follow the logic that I use every league start. In a future post I plan to highlight every build I've used so far and what I find easier to play. 

Let's get started! 

                Credit: Grinding Gear Games pathofexile.com

1. Path of Building: Pick a build ahead of time and plan it out in Path of Building (PoB). Whether you're making your own build, or following a build guide to the letter from a popular streamer (Zizaran, Fuzzy Duckzy, crouching_tuna, etc) or website (Poe-Vault or Maxroll); PoB is going to be very helpful for you as you level and you can always update it on the fly as needed. I always use the Notes section to write my campaign guide below, what skills I plan to use along the way, and any typical leveling uniques that I might want to trade for.

Additionally, if you want to know when you get access to certain skills and items poe-roadmap is a handy tool that you can paste your PoB link into and generate that info. Simply use your PoB import/export button and at the bottom click generate and copy to get your PoB code.

2. Loot Filter: Download a loot filter. I use filterblade's default softcare semi-strict filter. Simply download the file, drop it on your Path of Exile folder in Documents. Then go into the game settings and enable it. This will prevent you from being overwhelmed by loot dropping as it'll only show relevant items to your character level and will highlight items that are valuable.

Note that as you play the game more and understand loot better you can tweak the filter settings to your desire. You can also download specific filters based on whatever activity you're doing and switch between them in game.

3. Create your character: It's important to understand that most builds are based on an ascendancy name so understanding the core class for that ascendancy is key. For instance, a Witch can be an elementalist, an occultist, or a necromancer. 

Ensure you're selecting the correct check boxes when starting. Generally you want Softcore and the league name. Hardcore, Solo Self-Found, and Ruthless won't be for anybody reading this guide. 

4. World Map and Overlay: There is no world map technically but when you click the button next to a quest it'll bring up the map of the zones in the Act. The orange line shows the path to get to that quest. Filled in dots means there's a WP that you have, an open circle is an area without a WP, a circle with a dot in the middle has a WP you haven't found yet. Note that 99% of these zones are worth going into to complete missions, grab WP's, and to do trials. 

Additionally, you'll notice zones have a branch from the previous zones. The branch isn't entirely accurate but is somewhat accurate. For instance, in Act 1 you'll notice on the map Tidal Island is down and right of The Coast.  The Coast, the WP will always be at the end of the zone before the entrance to the Mud Flats and the entrance to Tidal Island will always be slightly down and right from that WP. 

I highly recommend almost always having the overlay on (tab button). It helps you with understanding where you're at in a zone and where quest items are. If it's too much you can change the size and transparency in settings. 

5. Understand Skill Gems, Sockets, & Links: I'm not saying you need to be an expert in how all the support gems work but understanding socket colors and links is key as you level your character. You don't want to be in a situation where you have a skill setup you wish to use but don't have the gear to equip it properly. Ensure you read an article or watch a quick video explaining this if you're new. 

6. Resistances (resists): I'll point out gear checks throughout the campaign and resists is the #1 driver for this. As you play through the campaign you'll hit 2 checkpoints that lower your resists by 30%, after the first and second kitava fights. Resists always max out at 75%, anything beyond that requires specific passives to increase it beyond. 

To check your resists press C then click on the defense tab. Ensure that your resists are never negative (unless you have a build that allows for it) and as close to max as you can get them. A1-A5 don't worry about chaos resist or maxing out your resists, but A6-A10 you'll want all positives and as close to max as you can get. 

7. Campaign: Now the TLDR campaign playthrough. 

Act 1:

Get your starting weapon and gem on the beach. Set your left click skill to move instead of default attack.

Use movement skill (dash or frostblink) from Tarkleigh after first missions. 

After getting the Lower Prison WP make sure to grab skill gems from Nessa. 

Lower Prison has first trial and Brutus. Brutus rewards flame dash which is the most popular movement skill in the game.

After Fairgraves get to Merveil's Cavern WP and head back to town to get quest rewards and any skills you may want from Nessa. 

Kill act 1 boss Merveil who has high cold damage. Avoid the pillars of water. A sapphire ring is good here due to its cold resist. If one hasn't dropped, isn't at the vendor, then sell an iron ring + blue skill gem to a vendor to make one, this is called a vendor recipe.

Act 2:

Note: Ensure you know which bandits to kill before you get to any of them. Killing all of them gives you 2 passive points which is typically what you want but some builds are better when you save 1 of them.

Do north route from town. Great white beast first. Find crossroads WP and go back to town. 

Get quicksilver flask from Yeena. This is the best utility flask in the game as it gives you a burst of speed to get out of tight situations, or to get through zones faster.

Find Chambers of Sin. Chambers of Sin 2 has second trial. Do intruders in black here too. 

Get Arctic armour from Greust for use until Siosa in A3 where you'll get access to better defensive abilities. 

Do south route next. Go south and find weaver's chambers to complete sharp and cruel. 

Complete deal with bandits (kill all or save 1). Return to town for reward and back to Lionseye to turn in a quest completed in A2. 

Complete third trial in The Crypt. Kill A2 boss in vaal ruins. This is an easy fight, just avoid the big slam. 

Act 3: 

On your way to Sarn, kill guard captain, talk to clarissa for lost in love quest. 

Get Tolman's bracelet and complete fourth trial in city of Sarn crematorium. 

Clarissa gives you keys to a sewer in Sarn. Buy any gems from her that you may need. 

Do fifth trial in Catacombs. 

Do Victario's, Ribbon, and Gemling quests. Pick amulet with stats you need as reward. 

Go to library and get fixture of fate 4 pages. Siosa will sell you any gems you need up to this point so bring your currency with you to fill out your leveling build here.

Do sixth trial in Imperial Gardens. 

Kill act boss Dominus. This is a long fight against multiple enemies but when he becomes a cockroach ensure you get in his bubble when it's raining corpses and blood. 

First real gear check, get resists 50+%, get life, get gem sockets, should be lvl 30+ by now. If not then go back to some higher areas to clear trash to level up. You can reset zones by holding cntrl + clicking on them and choosing a new instance.

Do your first labyrinth, Normal Lab. Select your ascendancy. The labs are accessed in A3 Sarn Encampment up top. You need to do all 6 trials first to access. Poelab will give you guides and maps to get through this if you don't know how. 

Act 4: 

Do Breaking the seal. Complete Indomitable spirit and grab Crystal Veins WP. Do eternal nightmare daresso and kaom. 

Kill piety. She's easy as long as you are ready for her spinning beam. Simply run ahead of it in a circle while she does it, don't try to tank it.

Kill act boss Malachai. Piety will help you in the first part. When she yells kill me attack her instead of him. When you drop down ensure you kill the hearts on the sides when they're up.

Act 5: 

Sail to Oriath and talk to Lani. Choose a 2 stone ring needed the most for resists. 

Do in service to science & key to freedom. Reach chamber of innocence, WP to town and get a flask from Lani (choose what's most helpful to your build). 

Complete death to purity, ravenous god, and kitava's torments. Ensure you're level 40+, have 70+% resists, and have your first ascendancy. 

Act 5 boss, kill kitava. You won't win this fight. Avoid the AOE, attack the heart when it pops out. Eventually Sin flies in to save you after a big blast from kitava. 

Act 6: 

You have now lost 30% to all resists. Second gear check, redo resists to 50+% including chaos, get life, get gem sockets, should be lvl 40+ by now. 

Grab Coast WP, go to mud flats, do father of war. 

Go to Ridge and grab WP and go back to Coast for Bestel's epic. 

Portal scroll from bestel's epic and do fallen from grace. Talk to Lilly for gem reward. Note Lilly now sells gems. 

Reach lower prison. Complete seventh trial in Lower Prison. 

Kill Brutus & Shavronne, grab crafting item. Go to prisoner's gate to kill abberath. 

Grab WP in riverways, go north to wetlands for ryslatha. 

Select first minor pantheon node. Press Y if it doesn't popup. You get to select 1 major (top) and 1 minor (bottom) nodes on this tree for a free passive effect. These get unlocked as you do specific quests in the game. 

Complete remaining quests and go kill A6 boss, brine king. Avoiding touching water and avoid aoe lightning strikes, otherwise fight is easy. Select first major pantheon node.

Act 7: 

Do silver locket quest first and find the crypt.

Eighth trial is in The Crypt, along with map for essence of artist. 

WP to crossroads, go to chamber of sins for web of secrets. 

Ninth trial is in chamber of sins 2. Do master of million faces too before leaving. 

Go to dread thicket, gather 7 fireflies and kill Greust. 

Travel to the causeway for kishara star. Get WP in vaal city. Go to town for rewards. 

Now that you have done 9 trials you can do CRUEL LAB. From any WP you can travel to the Labs WP on the right side of the screen. 

Should be level 55-60 by now. 

WP back to vaal city get to temple of decay 2 then navigate the temple to kill act boss arakaali. This boss is easy if you avoid the purple lasers. Note it does high chaos damage. 

Act 8: 

Immediately do essence of the hag and kill doedre. Go to the quay. 

Complete love is dead. Ensure you grab the Ankh on left side of map before you head down to Clarissa. Go to grain gate do gemling legion. 

Go to solaris temple and grab WP in level 1. Complete solar eclipse and return to town. 

Go back to sewers to do left side of the map. 

Tenth trial is in the bath house. Reflection of terror is in high gardens. 

Go to lunaris concourse then lunaris temple level 2 and do lunar eclipse. 

From lunaris or solaris concourse head towards harbour bridge to find the act bosses. 

Kill act bosses. The sun and moon fight each other and they fight you. Just avoid their aoe and take the fight slow and easy. 

Should be level 60-65ish by now. 

Act 9: 

Go to vastiri desert and get WP. Do storm blade quest first. 

Complete queen of sands off vastiri desert WP. 

Go to boiling lake for basilisk quest. 

Complete fastis fortuna. 

Do eleventh trial in The Tunnel.

Do ruler of highgate then back to town. 

Kill act boss depraved trinity. Nothing fancy about this fight but the electrified books can hit hard, especially if your lightning resist isn't max. 

Act 10: 

Kill plaguewing and do safe passage. 

Put a portal scroll down middle of ruined square. Grab WP in control blocks left on the map. WP back to town for flask reward. 

Go back through portal and head right to Ossuary. Do no love for old ghosts and twelfth trial in ossuary. 

Back to town and do death and rebirth quest to kill avarius. Finish off control blocks and ravaged square. 

Should be lvl 65-70 by now.

DO MERCY LAB BEFORE KITAVA. This is important because you'll lose 30% resists after kitava so mercy lab is far easier before kitava fight, and also makes the fight much easier. 

Kill campaign boss Kitava. Same mechanics as before. Avoid aoe and slams, kill heart when it pops out. 

This is your final gear check for your league starter. Redo all resists (jewelry and belts are common for resists), get end game capable gear, and gem sockets/links for your build. At this point your main attack skill needs to be at least a 5 link, if not a 6 link.

If you need to farm up currency you can go engage with other league mechanics (delve and heist) to farm up some gear and currency. You can also engage in the trade site and do some bulk currency exchange to exchange some of your lesser used currency for chaos orbs, which are the most common form of trade currency.

8. Early Mapping: 

For maps ensure you are doing maps you haven't done before so you can get Atlas passives. Ensure you build your Atlas tree to maximize your build's potential. You can select passives for specific activities but most people go up the middle and select all the map drop passives to maximize new maps. 

For "white maps" (the logo and circle in the middle is white) you'll want to ensure they're all magic rarity (blue text). Use orbs of transmutation on them to make them magic. 

For "yellow maps" ensure they are rare by using orb of alchemy. If a "yellow map" is magic rarity (blue text) you can use a regal orb or an orb of scouring to make it normal then you can use an alch on it.