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It’s time to talk about one of the biggest surprises to come out of the most recent Path of Exile patch notes-the Hierophant Kinetic Blast Wander. For years, Elementalist dominated the wand archetype with elemental scaling, shock effect, and effortless clear POE currency. But with the newest changes, particularly the massive buff to Kinetic Blast of Clustering, Hierophant has quietly become one of the strongest, safest, and most flexible endgame choices in the entire game.
The Patch Note That Changed Everything: Kinetic Blast of Clustering Buff
Hidden near the bottom of the latest patch notes was one of the most important stealth buffs we’ve seen in months:
Kinetic Blast of Clustering – Added Physical Damage equal to 17% of maximum mana (up from 15%).
At first glance, a 2% increase might not seem game-changing, but that’s where most people underestimate how the skill scales. For a late-game Hierophant running 7,000+ mana, this isn’t just a small tweak-it translates to roughly 16% more early-game damage and 13% more in the late game.
Why does this matter? Because Kinetic Blast’s biggest weakness has always been its early-to-mid-game single target damage. The clear speed was never in question-with its screen-wide chain explosions and projectile overlaps, Kinetic Blast has been a mapper’s dream for years. But killing tanky rares or early bosses always required heavy investment.
Now, with this buff, that early power gap has closed dramatically. Hierophants can maintain their signature mana stacking while enjoying better damage scaling right out of the gate.
The Physics of Destruction: Forks, Collisions, and the Wall of Force
One of the key reasons Kinetic Blast of Clustering has remained so powerful is its unique projectile behavior. Each fired projectile forks, ricochets, and causes secondary explosions that can overlap-and this new patch makes that system even more interesting.
When you fire, your projectiles can fork left and right, but there’s also a 75% chance for one to pass straight through the center. By adding an extra projectile (via Split Shot or a jewel like Impossible Escape), you can manipulate how these forks behave.
That central projectile is crucial because it hits the tornado first, triggering the signature “explosion ring” effect around it. In optimal conditions, you’ll see six overlapping explosions, and depending on AoE scaling, some can double-hit the same target.
Now, here’s where the patch introduces something entirely new-Wall of Force.
This ability lets you summon a temporary wall that projectiles can collide with. Instead of your forked projectiles flying off into nowhere, they now hit the wall, causing additional explosions on contact. When positioned correctly behind a boss, this wall effectively doubles your projectile collisions, creating massive overlap potential.
In theory, this could turn Kinetic Blast into a pseudo-shotgun skill when combined with enough area scaling from Hierophant’s ascendancy. But it’s still an open question-will it be broken or underwhelming? We’ll find out soon enough once more players get to test it.
Ascendancy Strength: Why Hierophant Wins the Long Game
After your first three ascendancy points, Elementalist often runs into a wall where the remaining options don’t add much to the build. Hierophant, on the other hand, gains access to new Bloodline passives that fill this gap perfectly.
One standout is Hunt Leader, which spawns five spectral tigers that passively grant:
+125% increased critical strike chance
+35% increased attack and cast speed
They trigger automatically when you crit, and if the internal cooldown is similar to wolves (0.5 seconds), they’ll stay up nearly all the time.
This is effectively “free power” for a wander build that already scales critical strike multiplier and attack speed naturally. It’s like adding another aura without reservation cost-and it comes from a trivial boss encounter (Farrul), making it accessible to nearly everyone.
Combine this with Hierophant’s already strong mana scaling, Arcane Blessing, and defensive layering, and you’ve got a build that excels in mapping, bossing, and defensive uptime alike.Grace of the Goddess: Now Stronger and More Accessible
Another huge win for this archetype is the buff to Grace of the Goddess. Previously offering 10-30% of physical damage as extra elemental, it now grants 10-50%, for a total of around 150% extra elemental damage from your physical base.
That’s a major multiplier for any build scaling mana-based physical damage like Kinetic Blast.
Even better, Grace of the Goddess is no longer the rarest Maven drop-Progenesis has taken its place. This means more supply, slightly lower prices, and a realistic shot at acquiring one early in the league.
The trade-off is a small nerf to the attached prophecy version (less crit, more attack speed), but since Hierophant can easily cap crit anyway, it’s a net win. The smoother attack speed actually makes the build feel better in practice, especially when weaving Tornado or Power Siphon into the rotation.
Rune Graft of Refraction: The Wild Card
Now, here’s where things get truly experimental. The new Rune Graft of Refraction has theorycrafters buzzing-and for good reason.
If this interaction works as expected with Kinetic Blast of Clustering, it could completely change how the build functions.
Kinetic Blast technically fires one projectile (the rest are secondary explosions). If the Rune Graft respects that rule, it means you could remove Awakened Fork-freeing a gem slot and gaining around 20% more damage from a better support gem.
The implications are huge: more efficient gem links, cleaner scaling, and potential interactions with Tornado and Hydrosphere setups for even more overlap.
There’s some risk-if the Graft limits the explosion behavior, the damage could actually drop. But if it works, it’s easily one of the strongest single passive replacements in the game right now.
Power Siphon of the Archmage: A Secondary Weapon for Bossing
For players worried about single-target burst, Power Siphon of the Archmage offers an elegant backup plan.
The transfigured version trades some base attack damage for 27% of maximum mana as extra Lightning Damage-a huge boost early on. At 7,000 mana, that’s nearly 2,000 flat lightning damage.
In practical use, it makes an excellent four-link Ballista totem setup with Culling Strike, ideal for early bossing or mapping transitions.
If too many totems overlap or block the wall, it could reduce projectile efficiency, so positioning will matter more than ever.
Still, it’s a powerful fallback if Kinetic Blast feels weak until higher investments.
Optional Guardian Start and Shrine Buffs
There’s also a growing theory about Guardian as a temporary start. The new Harmony of Purpose node now extends shrine duration to 20 seconds, and the Unwavering Crusade notable gives Level 27 Wrath and Anger, providing massive early damage.
This makes Guardian a strong leveling or early-mapping option before transitioning to Hierophant at around level 80. The respeccing cost is high, but the stability and aura value may be worth it for some players.
However, some tree nodes no longer interact with shrine mechanics, so the total power might be lower than it seems on paper. Hierophant still wins in terms of long-term scaling and mana synergy.
Final Thoughts: Hierophant Wander Is the Meta Sleeper
All things considered, Hierophant has quietly become the safest and most versatile Kinetic Blast wander archetype in Path of Exile.
Here’s why:
Early Game: 16% more damage, better mana scaling, and improved clear speed.
Mid Game: Free critical and attack speed from Bloodline tigers.
Late Game: Grace of the Goddess buffs and potential Rune Graft synergy push the ceiling higher.
Flexibility: Access to Power Siphon, Wall of Force, and optional Guardian transitions.
Elementalist still has elemental penetration and exposure advantages, but the combination of mana-based damage, crit consistency, and new scaling layers make Hierophant the clear winner for players who want a build that scales effortlessly into endgame content cheap Path of exile currency.
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