And get Hunter’s Exalted Orbs
Al-Hezmin is one of the Conquerors of the Atlas. He was part of Zana’s band of Exiles who once explored the maddening labyrinth. His expertise helped greatly in their exploration, as he seemed to never get lost. In the cartographer’s words, his desire to be the best at everything hollowed him out somehow. That’s where the ‘curse’ of the Atlas got to him. Now, he is a Conqueror of the Atlas, still bent on proving he’s the best hunter. He drops PoE currency such as the Hunter’s Exalted Orb.
How to Encounter Him
Once you get to a corner of the Atlas, you’ll start to encounter influenced maps. That means a Conqueror has arrived and you can find their Citadel. After completing an influenced map, you’ll see regions of the Atlas matching the color of the Conqueror. For Al-Hezmin, the color is green. An indicator of how far you’ve chased them also appears on your map.
When you’ve completely chased a Conqueror by running influenced maps, you can start to find their Citadel. Quest markers will appear on Zana and Kirac. Talk to Kirac to locate the Citadel, then Zana to open up the portals to it. Complete the map, and defeat the boss. A portal to the Conqueror will appear next to the boss’s dead body. You have 6 tries to do so, else the Conqueror will escape and you’ll have to start chasing them again.
Fighting Al-Hezmin
He’s the only Atlas boss who deals Chaos Damage. Fittingly, his triangular arena also has a pool in the middle of it. Make sure to pay attention to your positioning as depending on the current phase, it may or may not be beneficial to stand in it.
You’ll also have to dodge the attacks of the Wyverns and Vipers he summons. Mobility is key, though again watch out for the pool in the middle.
He has certain combos such as a stab combo that ends with a slam. There’s also his volley of poison projectiles when you’re far away, or his sweep then projectile combo. Watch him learn his tells so you can move appropriately. When he fires a giant wyvern, it also fills the pool with acid. Some vipers will spawn from the pool and Al-Hezmin will keep on running away from you. This is also the phase where you avoid stepping into the middle part of the arena.
Defend yourself with PoE items that give resistance to Chaos Damage. The PoE Unique Zahndethus’ Cassock can give 40-50% Chaos Resistance, for example. Of course, you can also craft one yourself, as there’s also your character’s build to factor in. Not every unique item can fit all kinds of builds, and only a handful of them gives Chaos Resistance anyway.
What Do Hunter’s Exalted Orbs Do Anyway?
These PoE orbs can add a unique Hunter’s affix (prefix: Hunter’s, suffix: of the Hunt) onto a rare PoE item. You cannot use it on PoE uniques. Though it only appears as either of those two indicated, it can have a variety of effects. It depends on what kind of Path of Exile item you used it on and how lucky you are at rolling.
Effects range from adding projectile piercing strength to adding elemental damage to attacks. There’s also the more normal +x% to Health or even add levels to socketed gems. The strength of these modifiers depends on the level of the Path of Exile item. Higher-leveled PoE items make PoE orbs roll a stronger effect. There’s a huge pool of useful effects to discover, and if you want to get the best results you’ll have to farm the boss.
Conclusions
That’s how you farm Al-Hezmin for his Hunter’s Exalted Orbs. Of course, you can also trade for them, but where’s the fun in that? Figuring out the best builds to use for this battle and actually fighting him can be so much fun. Then again, when you’ve done it so many times it can become really tedious. It is, after all, farming PoE currency, an incredibly repetitive and time-consuming activity.
At any rate, you can try fighting the other Conquerors for a break in farming. That way you can break the monotony and you won’t tire of farming too quickly. This is also the way to get the opportunity to fight Sirus, Awakener of Worlds. That is the final boss of the expansion, so gear up for a really difficult fight.
Keep on enjoying Path of Exile!
