PoE2 0.4.0 BiS Melee Amulet Crafting Guide: +3 Skills & High Defense

📋 Background

The 0.4.0 Melee Meta

In Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0, Melee classes like Shaman, Invoker, and Warbringer are incredibly strong. Skills like Ice Strike scale massively with Gem Levels.

Therefore, the ultimate goal for any melee build is an Amulet with "+3 to Level of all Melee Skills". However, pure damage isn't enough. You also need High Critical Damage and robust Defenses. Market prices for such amulets are often hundreds of Divines. This guide will show you how to craft one yourself for a fraction of the cost.

Here is the final result:

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🛠️ Crafting Materials

Gather these materials. This craft relies on specific Catalyst interactions to force defensive prefixes.

Icon	Name	Qty	Description
	Perfect Essence of Enhancement	1	Guaranteed (20–30)% increased Global Defences.
	Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation	1	Next Essence removes only Prefixes.
	Omen of Light	Var	Next Annulment removes only Desecrated modifiers.
	Preserved Collarbone	1	Desecrates a Rare Amulet.
	Perfect Exalted Orb	3+	Augments a Rare item.
	Omen of Sinistral Exaltation	3+	Next Exalt adds only a Prefix.
-	Omen of Catalysing Exaltation	3+	Next Exalt matches Item Quality type.
-	Carapace Catalyst	Var	Increases Quality of Defense modifiers.
	Omen of Abyssal Echoes	1	Reroll Desecrated options once.

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🛠️ Step-by-Step Crafting Guide

This craft requires patience during the rolling phase but uses deterministic methods for the defenses.

Step 1: The Base & The Gamble

1. Buy Base: Stellar Amulet (Required for Attribute Requirements on Melee builds).
2. Fracture: The item MUST have Fractured Tier 1 Critical Damage Bonus.
3. Chaos Spam: Use Chaos Orbs until you hit "+3 to Level of all Melee Skills".
   • Warning: This mod has a very low weight. It might take ~1,500 Chaos Orbs. It could be instant, or it could take forever. This is the hardest part.

Step 2: Forcing Defenses (Prefix #2)

Once you have the +3 Skills, we build defenses.

1. Apply Carapace Catalysts (Quality = Defense).
2. Apply Omen of Catalysing Exaltation.
3. Apply Omen of Sinistral Exaltation.
4. Use a Perfect Exalted Orb.
   • Result: You have a very high chance to hit Tier 1/Tier 2 % Increased Evasion/Energy Shield (or Armour depending on base).

Step 3: Global Defense (Prefix #3)

If Step 2 failed or you want to guarantee the best defensive mod:

1. Apply Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation.
2. Use Perfect Essence of Enhancement.
   • Result: This guarantees "30% increased Global Defences". This is a massive survivability boost.

Step 4: Finishing Prefixes

If you still have an open Prefix slot (and didn't use the Essence method yet):

1. Repeat the Carapace Catalyst + Omen of Catalysing Exaltation strategy from Step 2.
2. Recovery: If you hit a bad mod, you can try to Annul it. If you have 4 good mods and 1 bad mod, consider using Omen of Whittling + Perfect Chaos Orb to try and save the item structure.

Step 5: The Final Suffix (Unveil)

Now we finish the Suffixes.

1. Apply Omen of Abyssal Echoes (Safety Net).
2. Use Preserved Collarbone.
3. Unveil the Suffix.
   • Target: Look for Tier 1/2 All Elemental Resistances or Critical Hit Chance.
   • Since you already have Fractured Crit Multi, getting Crit Chance here makes the amulet an offensive powerhouse.

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💡 Pro Tips & Q&A

Q1: Why use a Stellar Amulet? A: Melee builds often struggle with Intelligence or Dexterity requirements for gems. The Stellar base provides a massive boost to attributes, solving gearing pressure elsewhere.

Q2: Why fracture Critical Damage instead of +3 Skills? A: This is for the high-end gamblers.

• If you fracture +3 Skills, the item is "safe" but capped.
• If you fracture Crit Damage and roll +3 Skills naturally, you leave the door open to use an Omen of Sanctification later. This Omen can potentially upgrade the +3 Skills into a +4 to Level of all Melee Skills, which is the absolute theoretical maximum power in the game.