The Maven

The Maven
The Maven
Level(s)	84 () 85 (Uber)
Location(s)	Absence of Mercy and Empathy
Quest(s)	The Atlas of Worlds The Maven
Health	51 219 201
Damage	3647
ApS	1.5
Resistance(s)	50% Fire 50% Cold 50% Lightning 30% Chaos
Modifier(s)	Cannot Be Fully Slowed Immune To Knockback Eldritch

The Maven watches the player slay a map boss

For an eternity, the darkness swelled within a ceaseless churn of its feeding, and then... silence. Such silence is deafening to those who listen for it. The abyss cast its gaze upon its source. The first lurching movement of boundaries drawn long before the dawn. A claimant has arrived. You may know who. You wish to know why.

The Maven seeks new conflict. Bored, she is, with the realm she has given. She is not the only one. The silence is deafening to all.

The Envoy

The Maven is an NPC and boss encountered within maps. Progressing the Maven's questline allows the player to unlock the Maven's Beacon, which lets the player call upon the Maven to the map to witness you. Defeating enough unique bosses while the Maven is witnessing you will earn you a Maven's Invitation to challenge them all at once for rewards. Completing each Invitation for the first time earns you an atlas passive skill point.

The Maven can also be fought as a boss after collecting enough Crescent Splinters from challenging Invitations to form . Defeating the Maven for the first time will reward the player with an Atlas Book of Skill and a .

Entry

Maven's Crucible

By slaying 3 map bosses in the Maven's presence, you'll earn an invitation to The Maven's Crucible where she will request that you defeat these bosses simultaneously. Having demonstrated your strength, she challenges you to defeat four bosses, then five, then six and finally ten at the same time. Only then can you take on the new pinnacle boss of the Atlas: the Maven herself. The Atlas Quick Guide takes the player through all the steps required to find The Maven and to unlock The Maven's Crucible.

To know if the map is eligible to have Maven's presence, you can check if her symbol is highlighted before activating your map device.

Maven will boost the boss in one of the following ways:

• Create one or more clone(s) of the boss (Shadow, rise and fight! and other voice lines)
• Guard: Grants a 3 second guard skill that takes 75% of the damage taken by the boss
• Increase the boss's speed
• Heal: Regenerates a percentage of the boss's life (the cooldown for this boost increases each time it is used, can be countered via reduced regeneration rate)
• Spatial Decay: enemies inflict the debuff on hit, dealing chaos damage over time for a duration.
• Ethereal Tendrils: the player's action speed is reduced; can be removed by moving or using a blink skill.
• Degen Orbs: Cast an orb that follows the player and deals fire damage over time from the debuff Orb Fire
• Chilling Orbs: Casts several orb that when triggered, explodes and drops Frozen Ground which deals cold damage over time
• Volatile Orbs: Casts an orb that chases the player and explodes, dealing lightning damage
• Beam Orbs: Creates an orb that branches out and rotates, dealing damage in an area for a duration.

Maven boss

Players must use the with the map device to fight the Maven. The writ can be formed by collecting from fights within The Maven's Crucible.

Recommendations

The following is recommended for fighting the Maven:

• At least 2 million damage per second
• Capped elemental resistances (fire, cold and lightning resistance at 75%); additional Maximum resistance is also useful.
• At least 6,000 combined Life and Energy Shield and a reliable source of recovery
• Moderate mitigation or avoidance, including Physical damage reduction, Armour, Block, Spell Suppression
• Movement skill to traverse between lasers and avoid other abilities - (Teleports like , , , , or work best rather than skills that physically move you like or due to clipping into the lasers)

Skills

• The Maven fights alongside The Nucleus of the Maven throughout the fight.

Maven Phase

Starts out in this phase; The Maven is targetable, and teleports around the arena. The Nucleus rotates around the arena and uses its own skills. The Maven's health is fully recovered each phase, and occurs three times.

The Maven

• Autoattack: Fires a single projectile, dealing Lightning Damage
• Tri-Beam Claws: "Stand still!" - fires two sets of three lasers that move in opposite directions across the ground, dealing heavy elemental damage.
• Cascade of Pain/Frost Projectiles: "A cascade of pain!" - fires 5 sequential balls of ice that pierce all targets.
• Collapse Volatiles: "Mine!" - causes all Volatile Orbs to become purple and chase the player before exploding.
• Memory Game: "Death will not be an escape." - Teleports to the middle of the arena, becoming invincible. Waits a few seconds before indicating between three sections of the arena (Left, Right, Top) with a purple flash. Used in Maven Phase 2, 3, and Final Phase. Has a CD of 60 seconds.
  • Memory Game Blast: "Scurry, scurry!" - Charges up an arena-wide blast. The player can now repeat the Maven's Memory Game pattern, flashing green if correct. Stepping on an incorrect section will cause the section to flash red, and accelerate the charge-up. Completing the memory game, causing it to fill the whole arena, or stepping into the charged-up section will cause it to explode, dealing 3-6 extremely high physical damage hits converted to each element, always inflicting Ignite/Shock/Freeze, and dealing Lightning Damage over time.
• Circle Slam: "Do what I say!" - charges up a small area before detonating, dealing 3-6 physical damage hits converted to each element, always inflicting Ignite/Shock/Freeze, and bypasses all Block or Dodge chance. Used only in Maven Phase 2 and 3.

The Nucleus of the Maven

• Volatile Orbs: fires several orbs that then begin to move in a circle around the arena. Explodes with Lightning damage after a delay on contact.
• Ball Lightning: fires 5 sequential slow-moving balls that explode on impact, dealing Lightning damage.
• Decelerating Projectiles: fires three projectiles that decelerate, then begin to chase the player. Explodes with Cold damage after a short delay on impact, creating a Gravity Well.
  • Gravity Well: creates a pool of cold DOT that slows the player's action speed. Persists throughout the fight and resets each time you reach a new Maven phase (not removed during the final phase).
• Ion Cannon: "Death made real." Charges up a wide beam across the arena, dealing heavy Cold and Lightning Damage, always inflicting Ignite/Shock/Freeze, and bypasses all Block or Dodge chance. Used only in Maven Phase 2 and 3.

Brain Phase

After using Brain Blast, the Nucleus uses Brain Beam and Summon Bosses until you deal 33% of the Nucleus' health. Then, repeat Maven Phase, removing any existing Gravity Wells.

The Nucleus of the Maven

• Brain Blast: "Pain will be returned tenfold."/"Time contorts."/"Reality bends." - charges up an arena-wide explosion; the player must move to one of the two smaller platforms that are now accessible on the edges of the arena. Explodes with the line "Space aligns." Removes all remaining Volatile Orbs. Deals 3 extremely high physical damage hits converted to each element, always inflicting Ignite/Shock/Freeze, and bypasses all Block or Dodge chance.
• Brain Beam: Creates two beams which rotate around the arena, starting from where the two small platforms are. Touching the beam applies the Maven's Punishment, reducing all Maximum Elemental Resistances by 10% and prevents all recovery of Life and Energy Shield for 10 seconds.
• Summon Bosses: "Behold, my collection..."/"Scurry, scurry..."/"Punishment inescapable." - summons various map bosses endlessly.

Final Phase

The Nucleus no longer is active and only uses Brain Beam 2 between Memory Games. The Maven is significantly tankier and will remain in this phase until killed.

• Brain Beam 2: "Arrogant toy!" - the Nucleus collapses in the middle of the arena, creating 5 rotating beams which rotate around the arena. Each beam has a gap that can be safely walked through which moves up and down. Touching the beam applies the Maven's Punishment, reducing all Maximum Elemental Resistances by 10% and prevents all recovery of Life and Energy Shield for 10 seconds. These beams cannot be lept over with .

The Maven

• Autoattack: Fires a single projectile, dealing Lightning Damage
• Tri-Beam Claws: "Stand still!" - fires two sets of three lasers that move in opposite directions across the ground, dealing heavy damage.
• Cascade of Pain: "A cascade of pain!" - fires 5 sequential balls of ice that pierce all targets.
• Sun Projectile: "Take this!" Tracks the player, charging up a giant Sun and firing it. Explodes on contact, dealing Fire Damage in a large area and always Ignites.
• Memory Game: "Death will not be an escape." - Teleports to the middle of the arena, becoming invincible. Waits a few seconds before indicating between three sections of the arena (Left, Right, Top) with a purple flash. Used in Maven Phase 2, 3, and Final Phase. Has a CD of 60 seconds.
  • Memory Game Blast: "Scurry, scurry!" - Charges up an arena-wide blast. The player can now repeat the Maven's Memory Game pattern, flashing green if correct. Stepping on an incorrect section will cause the section to flash red, and accelerate the charge-up. Completing the memory game, causing it to fill the whole arena, or stepping into the charged-up section will cause it to explode, dealing 3-6 extremely high physical damage hits converted to each element, always inflicting Ignite/Shock/Freeze, and dealing Lightning Damage over time.

Video Guide

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Uber boss variant

Using five opens a harder instance of the boss fight. The Maven is fought in Area Level 85 and greatly increases in difficulty. The fight with the Maven will have the following changes:

• Area has the mod Monsters take 50% less damage
• Maven's Cascade of Pain fires 2 additional projectiles.
• Maven's Sun projectile fires 4 additional projectiles.
• Gravity Wells will persist throughout the entire fight.
• Tri-Beam Claws also apply the Maven's Punishment debuff (no recovery)
• Map bosses will spawn during Memory Games, except during the final phase. The Memory Game progresses faster.

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Uber Maven can drop an Awakened exceptional support gem, , , , , or a .

Drops

Drop rates are estimated based on crowdsourced data and may not be accurate. version 3.24.0, n=100^r/300^u

	Maven	Uber Maven
Guaranteed Unique	(50%) (14%) Arn's AnguishArn's Anguish Cloth BeltRequires Level 68(15-25)% increased Stun and Block Recovery+(600-700) to Armour (12-15)% increased maximum Life +(40-60)% to Fire Resistance +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges Modifiers to Minimum Endurance Charges instead apply to Minimum Brutal Charges Maximum Brutal Charges is equal to Maximum Endurance Charges Gain Brutal Charges instead of Endurance ChargesThe tortured thinker is made heavier by the weight of his guilt. (14%) (14%) (7%) (<1%)	(50%) (36%) (12%) (<1%)
Encounter- specific drops	N/A	Awakened exceptional support gem (<1%) (1.5%) (5%)
Additional drops	(Quest Item, drops on first kill) (~33%) Awakened support gem (~25%)

Awakened support gems

Main page: List of awakened support gems

Gem	L					C/R Multi

Gem	L					C/R Multi

Gem	L					C/R Multi

Lore

Echoes of the Atlas

"

Halt, and heed this warning. The Maven has come, Nomad. She has come to witness you struggle. She has come to witness you conquer. She has come to ensure you are adequately challenged, and that, should you falter, your death does not go unsavoured. She is waiting for you, Nomad, and she is not known to be patient.

"

- The Envoy: "A Warning" dialogue

"

For an eternity, the darkness swelled within a ceaseless churn of its feeding, and then... silence. Such silence is deafening to those who listen for it. The abyss cast its gaze upon its source. The first lurching movement of boundaries drawn long before the dawn. A claimant has arrived. You may know who. You wish to know why.

The Maven seeks new conflict. Bored, she is, with the realm she has given. She is not the only one. The silence is deafening to all.

You fear The Maven. You fear she is The Elder, returned and emboldened. She is, and she is not.

The Maven serves not The Decay. She serves only her own amusement, passing eternity with an endless string of meaningless struggles.

She is not The Elder, but you are right to fear her.

"

- The Envoy: "The Maven" dialogue

"

You force an intervention, Nomad. You have proved your might. You have proved your ignorance.

The Maven is a toddler, a nymph, a hatchling that has wandered too far from the nest. Were I to allow you to continue, it would surely call for its progenitor. Were I to allow you to continue, you would drag all into its gaping maw.

The Maven must be protected and guarded. A mercy for you both. The end is delayed but not prevented. Savour your remaining time, I urge you. Prepare for its arrival, I urge you.

"

- The Envoy: "Admonishment" dialogue

"

It's The Maven. It has to be. She's been recreating other powerful creatures of the Atlas for her own amusement. Of course she would do the same to my brother, given his notable strength. None of the creatures out there can challenge him, either, which means The Maven is resurrecting him to watch his fights with you, and the Atlas is already the perfect battleground for such a show. Keep her entertained, Exile. It will give us more time to learn about her. If we can play this right, then perhaps Baran can be saved after all.

"

- Commander Kirac: "Baran's Resurrection" dialogue

"

After all that, The Maven turns out to be a young eldritch entity? I've seen many terrible things in my time, but this... I should be relieved. Instead, I'm filled with apprehension. If that was a child, then what kind of powers do her elders possess? What happens when those cosmic fiends finally turn their countless eyes in our direction? We are on a very dark path, Exile.

"

- Commander Kirac: "The Maven" dialogue

"

The Maven is our first encounter with the sea of madness beyond Wraeclast that so terrified men like Venarius in the past. As an antagonist rather than a villain, the Maven has motivations that often put her in conflict with us, but those same motivations can also sometimes align us as well. In any given encounter, she may try to kill our Exile, or she may offer power to entice us to do what she wants.

She also learns.

...

Being an entity from outside our realm, she doesn’t know our language when she first arrives, so she communicates in base emotions. More than that, she doesn’t even initially understand our modes of thought. She enters the Atlas as a being of pure moment-to-moment emotions that drive her with only barely more consciousness than the Elder. She often just exclaims excitedly, espousing her current feelings without any context or added intent.

As your time spent with the Maven grows, she begins to understand the concepts of ‘orders’ as they relate to her wants. She orders you to do things in the second tier of dialogue, rather than simply expressing a base emotion without a clear action attached. She goes from witnessing events as an excited observer to realizing she can influence those events with her communications. For example, in the first tier, she might just say ‘Boredom…’ because she is bored. Here, she begins to say ‘Boring. Kill.’ because she has realized that giving an order makes things more likely to happen.

In the third tier of dialogue, the Maven transcends the Bischof-Köhler hypothesis, a real-world concept that posits nonhuman animals are controlled only by current motivational states. She was formerly motivated only by the desires of the moment, but she now begins expressing an awareness of future mental states. Rather than just giving orders for what she wants, she starts communicating why she wants those things to happen. ‘Remove boredom. Kill.’ is an example of her communicating that she understands she can reach a non-boredom mental state through the fun of witnessing a kill.

The fourth tier of dialogue might make the observant Exile wary. After enough time spent together, the Maven begins recognizing the concept of self. Prior to this, she has never used the words ‘I’ or ‘my’ or ‘me.’ With the understanding of the existence of the self, her immature selfishness takes center stage. The same line from before becomes ‘Relieve my boredom. Kill for me.’ She makes it clear that her orders, intended to reach a future mental state, are specifically relating to her inner self and her desires. At no time does she ever consider the Exile’s personal autonomy.

The fifth tier of dialogue brings the Maven to full fluency in communication, if not in emotion. Her words are flowery and specific, though still selfish in intent. Here, regarding the ‘Cassia’s singing’ monster, we recorded a massive heap of extra lines to increase variety. This is the tier endgame players might spend the most time on, since it is the last, so the more lines the better.

Finally, the Maven has an encounter in which the player can do battle with her personally. This is not a battle for the fate of the world, because, as I discussed earlier, there’s only one narrative direction that can go. Rather, this is the inevitable crossroads at the end of the Maven’s character arc, where her selfishness and emotional immaturity bring her and the Exile into direct brutal conflict. Observant Exiles will notice that, if they win, the Maven will use certain words and express certain emotions that she never has before. She has learned. That leaves many ominous open-ended questions for future expansions, especially when we finally gain some insight about the scope of the cosmic threat through this conversation.

"

- Official Path of Exile website

Siege of the Atlas

"

In pinnacle boss battles, we gave her a sixth tier of dialogue that can be unlocked by defeating her as part of her own questline. This means she can finally take what she learns from that defeat to heart and be a little less callous toward our Exile. Astute players might also notice that she is the only eldritch entity that acknowledges us. The pinnacle bosses only talk to her, not us. We're beneath their notice. Fortunately, our connection to the Maven allows us to understand the eldritch language they're using. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to understand them when they conveniently call out what attacks they're about to use! For a time, we planned to give the Exile a buff that they could hover over to see that the Maven was actively giving them the ability to understand, but that didn't make it through the iterative design process.

"

- Official Path of Exile website

"

You've found The Maven! Then perhaps we have a chance after all. Do your best to win her over. She's drawn to conflict — the bloodier, the better. Try working your way deeper into the Atlas. Entertain her with combat. She might just aid her 'favourite toy' when the time comes.

The Maven is a powerful entity with a penchant for forcing combatants to fight to the death. Then, she resurrects them to do it all again, over and over. She's tortured more than a few of my men and added them to her collection... my own brother included.

A previous exile worked with her on our behalf, catching her interest for a time. That didn't last. Don't let her make you part of her collection.

"

- Commander Kirac: "The Maven" dialogue

"

They set foot upon this realm as a challenge to The Maven. Omnipotent and merciless, an eternity of suffering underlies and begets the annihilation they wreak. Their power is an insurmountable summit. You will not give them cause to falter. The Maven stakes her claim here, and only her voice might give them pause. Cling to her, Nomad, and pour all your hopes into the Struggle.

"

- The Envoy: "Their Arrival" dialogue

"

I'm glad you survived your battle with The Cleansing Fire's emissary, but I suspect this is hardly the end of The Maven's battle for ownership of the Atlas. Keep fighting as her champion, Godslayer. She's the best of our terrible options.

"

- Commander Kirac: "The Searing Exarch Defeated" dialogue

"

You've given The Tangle's champion a beating, but this was only one part of some ritual of ownership between eldritch entities. You've solidified The Maven's hold on the Atlas, but I doubt this is the end of the conflict. Stay wary.

"

- Commander Kirac: "The Eater of Worlds Defeated" dialogue

"

By the gods, you actually did it! You did battle with those eldritch fiends and lived to tell the tale. You've bought us some time, Godslayer. For the moment, The Maven has full control of the Atlas, and she's content to play there and leave us alone. Keep doing what you're doing... very carefully.

"

- Commander Kirac: "A Moment's Respite" dialogue

Version history

Version	Changes
3.24.0	The Cosmic Wounds, Memento Mori, Thirst for Knowledge, Insatiable Appetite, Throw the Gauntlet, and The Perfect Storm Atlas Keystone Passives have been removed. Instead, we have added a new set of fragments that can be used to access the Uber Pinnacle Bosses. Uber Pinnacle Bosses no longer drop additional rewards granted from their respective keystones (Uber Maven no longer drops an ). [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.] Rebalanced the drops and drop rates of Uber Pinnacle Bosses and introduced new exclusive Uber unique items. [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.]
3.20.0	Pinnacle bosses, Map bosses, Incursion architects, Betrayal targets, Breachlords and others no longer have 33% or 66% less effect of curses on them respectively.
3.18.0	Added 7 new uber versions of Pinnacle Boss fights, accessible through Atlas Keystone Passives. These fights are extremely difficult, so only attempt them if you have a very powerful character. The Maven now also can drop . [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.]
3.17.0	The Watchstone system has also been removed, and replaced with Voidstones which are obtained by defeating The Uber Elder, The Maven, The Searing Exarch and The Eater of Worlds. These Voidstones raise the tiers of maps on your Atlas and can be augmented by Sextants. The Maven Orb is now called the Orb of Dominance, and no longer drops from Maven. The Orb of Unmaking no longer drops from Maven. Awakened Gems no longer drop from Conquerors. Some Awakened Gems can now drop from The Maven's Crucible, with all Awakened Gems now being a possible drop from The Maven.
3.15.3	Fixed a bug where the beam skill used by a Maven-created clone of the Plaza Map boss would not cancel when a player entered a Conqueror arena.
3.15.1	Maven’s Memory Game no longer restarts upon re-entering the area if you died and left the area during it.
3.14.2	Map boss clones created by The Maven no longer persist after the map boss dies.
3.13.1	Added an audio telegraph to The Maven's Frost Projectiles skill. While witnessing The Shaper encounter, The Maven will no longer use her Heal skill during The Shaper's immunity phases. The Crusher of Gladiators map boss summoned by The Maven during her boss encounter will no longer use it's Reflect skill.
3.13.0b	Reduced the damage done by The Maven's volatile orb explosions.
3.13.0	Introduced to the game.