In this guide we’re going to be showing you how to craft the 12 link claw typically used for Lightning Strike, Flicker Strike & Minion builds as shown below.
Although the claw has only 9 links by itself when paired with The Squire shield it effectively becomes a 12 link which is where the name comes from.
Before we begin, this craft is estimated to cost around 2000 Exalted Orbs but can cost much more as it is heavily RNG gated.
The Base
To start the craft, we’ll need a Shaper Imperial Claw base with an item level of 75 which will be our main base for the craft due to its high APS & extremely powerful implicit modifier.
Why Item Level 75?
The reason we are using an item level 75 claw is so we can block a large number of modifiers from the pool which grants us a higher chance of successfully crafting the claw with less investment, the majority of gem support modifiers are item level 75.
Step 1. Socketed Skills Deal 40% More Attack Damage
To begin, we’ll need to craft the modifier “Socketed Skills Deal 40% More Attack Damage” on our claw, this is an ilvl 83 modifier which means there is only one way to craft it onto our claw – via beast crafting.
The Beasts We Need
The beast we need to obtain this modifier is the “Farric Wolf Alpha“, with bestiary crafting, you can hit modifiers equal to the main beast’s item level, meaning an item lvl 83 Farric Wolf Alpha can hit the Socketed Skills Deal 40% More Attack Damage modifier. The average for this is around 1/100. We will also need a Craicic Chimeral beast for imprinting at later stages.
The Crafting Process
To begin, use Alteration Orbs to hit a suffix on your claw with no prefix & then Regal Orb your claw, if it hits another suffix proceed to use the Farric Wolf Alpha to swap a suffix to prefix & hope you hit the Socketed Skills Deal 40% More Attack Damage modifier, if you fail, use an Orb of Scouring and repeat the process until success.
Your claw should eventually look like this:
Now, in order to proceed, we need to turn our item from rare to magic, retaining the prefix modifier, this can be done by bench crafting “Prefixes Cannot be Changed” and then using an Orb of Scouring.
Next, create an imprint of the claw using the Craicic Chimeral beast then proceed to step 2.
Step 2. Level 20 Ruthless
Next, we’ll be getting “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Ruthless” on our claw, this is the simplest part of the craft, simply get an Elder influenced claw with the Ruthless prefix and no other influenced modifier, then, Awakeners Orb onto the Imperial Claw base and hope for:
- Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Elemental Damage with Attacks
- If not the above, an open prefix
- 2 or 3 Suffixes
Our claw resulted in +1 Socketed Gems, if you are making a claw specifically for summoner, this is actually a good outcome, however, for Lightning Strike or Flicker we do not want this. Luckily, +1 Gems has no “Attack” tag which means we can bench craft “Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers” and safely use an Orb of Annulment to remove it.
Now, before we proceed to the next step, we need to ensure our suffixes are filled, in this example, we have only one suffix modifier – the most cost-effective way to get an additional suffix is to craft any prefix modifier via the bench and use a Leo exalt slam via betrayal & then bench craft the third suffix modifier.
There are multiple outcomes from the Awakener’s Orb, ultimately you must get your claw to the below state to proceed to the next step.
If, for whatever reason, you brick the prefixes on your claw, you must revert using the Craicic Chimeral imprint from earlier & repeat this step.
Step 3. Elemental Damage With Attacks
Once you have your claw in the above state, you can attempt to hit the “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Elemental Damage With Attacks“, the only way to do this is using the Harvest crafts given by Janaar, the Omen.
There are multiple ways to approach this step, if you have 2 suffixes and one crafted suffix you must use the “Augment Influence” craft and hope for “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Elemental Damage With Attacks“, the odds of this are 1 in 19.
If you have 3 suffixes, you can craft “Suffixes Cannot be Changed” and use “Remove Non-Influence, Add Influence” which will be significantly cheaper.
Lastly, if you have no suffixes and want to gamble, you can do “Prefixes Cannot be Changed” and “Reforge Influence“, however, this method has a significantly lower probability to hit the modifier we need so is not recommended.
If you fail, you must annul the failed prefix and retry, you can use methods such as the “Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers“, if you roll an attack modifier as the additional prefix, you must try and annul it. If you fail, revert via Imprint and repeat step 2 again.
If you succeed, your prefixes are now finished and your claw should look like this:
Step 4. Level 20 Multistrike
If you’ve made it this far, your prefixes are now finished and you’re almost done. Next, we will obtain “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Multistrike“, this is the easiest modifier to hit of them all. Simply craft “Prefixes Cannot be Changed” and use the Harvest craft “Reforge Speed” until you hit Level 20 Multistrike, the odds are 1 in 10.
If your suffixes fill during this, you must use “Reforge Keeping Prefixes” to free them up again.
Your claw should now look like this:
The reason we want Multistrike is because it gives Pseudo attack speed, increasing the APS of our claw significantly.
Step 5. Level 20 Critical Strikes/Damage
Our final steps are where we heavily rely on RNG, if you have two open suffixes, you can block Dexterity via the Crafting Bench and use an Exalted Orb to attempt to hit a good modifier, if you hit an influenced modifier that is useless – remove it in the best way you see fit.
If you hit a non-influenced modifier, use the Harvest craft “Remove Non-Influence, add Influence” and hope you hit either “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Critical Strikes” or “Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Critical Damage“.
If you do not hit either of those modifiers, remove the dead modifier the best way you see fit, using “Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers” if possible, if not and you have to use an Orb of Annulment, craft “Prefixes Cannot be Changed” and attempt to remove the dead modifier, if you hit Multistrike, repeat step 4.
If you hit either your claw should now look like this:
Step 6. The Final Modifier
Congratulations, you’re now at the final step. The last step is simply using “Augment Influence” or bench craft a modifier and “Remove Non Influence, Add Influence“, hoping you hit the critical modifier you are missing, the odds are 1 in 26 of hitting the other critical modifier.
If successful, your claw should look like this:
If you fail to hit the critical modifier, you can either sell the claw or “Reforge Keeping Prefixes” and start from Step 4 again.
If not, congratulations, you now have the strongest claw in Path of Exile – finish it up by adding the “Quality Does not Increase Physical Damage, 1% Increased Attack Speed per 8% Quality” Harvest enchantment & Vorici white sockets and it is ready for mirror service.
