"Pledging Hands in Poe: A Wiki Guide"

The Pledge of Hands is a unique and powerful skill in Path of Exile, a popular action RPG developed by Grinding Gear Games. This skill, found in the Duelist's section of the passive skill tree, offers a distinct playstyle that can significantly enhance your character's capabilities. This article will delve into the intricacies of the Pledge of Hands, its mechanics, and how to effectively use it in your build.

Understanding the Pledge of Hands

The Pledge of Hands is an aura skill that grants a significant boost to your character's physical damage, attack speed, and critical strike chance. It also provides a unique mechanic called "Pledge of Power," which converts a portion of your physical damage to chaos damage. This conversion makes the Pledge of Hands an attractive option for builds focusing on chaos damage, such as those using chaos-based weapons or skills.

Base Stats and Mechanics

At its core, the Pledge of Hands provides the following base stats:

• Physical Damage: +(40-50)%
• Attack Speed: +(20-25)%
• Critical Strike Chance: +(20-25)%
• Pledge of Power: +(20-25)% of Physical Damage converted to Chaos Damage

The Pledge of Hands also has a notable cooldown recovery rate, allowing you to use it frequently in combat. Its cooldown is reduced by having more auras active, making it an excellent choice for aura-based builds.

Passive Skill Tree and Pledge of Hands

The Pledge of Hands is located in the Duelist's section of the passive skill tree, near the Ascendancy class nodes. To reach the Pledge of Hands, you'll need to invest in several nearby passive skills, which can provide valuable bonuses to your character. Some notable nodes to consider include:

• Vile Bastion: Provides increased chaos damage and reduced chaos damage taken
• Unnatural Power: Increases physical damage conversion to chaos damage
• Eternal Youth: Grants a significant boost to energy shield and mana regeneration

Ascendancy Classes and Pledge of Hands

Choosing the right Ascendancy class can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the Pledge of Hands. Some popular choices include:

• Impale: Provides increased physical damage, attack speed, and critical strike chance, synergizing well with the Pledge of Hands' base stats
• Slayer: Offers increased damage, attack speed, and critical strike chance, as well as a powerful unique skill, Purity of Elements, which can further enhance the Pledge of Hands' chaos damage conversion

Building Around the Pledge of Hands

To make the most of the Pledge of Hands, consider the following build strategies:

Physical and Chaos Damage Focus

One popular approach is to focus on maximizing both physical and chaos damage. This can be achieved by using weapons with high physical damage and chaos damage over time effects, such as the Caustic Arrow or Essence Drain skills. The Pledge of Hands' Pledge of Power mechanic will convert a portion of your physical damage to chaos damage, further enhancing these skills' effectiveness.

Aura-Based Builds

The Pledge of Hands' cooldown recovery rate makes it an excellent choice for aura-based builds. By investing in nearby passive skills that grant increased aura effect, you can significantly extend the duration of the Pledge of Hands. This allows you to maintain its powerful bonuses throughout extended combat encounters.

Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier

To maximize the Pledge of Hands' damage output, consider investing in critical strike chance and multiplier. This can be achieved through passive skills, unique items, and support gems. By increasing your critical strike chance and multiplier, you can deal significantly more damage with the Pledge of Hands' physical and chaos damage bonuses.

Conclusion

The Pledge of Hands is a versatile and powerful aura skill that can greatly enhance your character's capabilities in Path of Exile. By understanding its mechanics, investing in the appropriate passive skills and Ascendancy classes, and building around its strengths, you can create a formidable character that leverages the Pledge of Hands' unique physical and chaos damage bonuses. Whether you're focusing on physical damage, chaos damage, or aura-based builds, the Pledge of Hands offers a compelling playstyle that can help you overcome even the most challenging encounters in Wraeclast.