We'll be discussing the Doppelgänger Guise, unique body armor in Path of Exile. This item has some unique properties and can be quite rare to acquire. It is a Maven-exclusive drop with approximately a two percent drop rate, so you'll need some good fortune to obtain it, especially if you're playing in the Solo Self-Found (SSF) mode.

• Special modifiers
• Defensive properties
• Synergizes with certain skills
• Divine Flesh
• Effective for builds
• Conclusion

 

↖ Special modifiers

The Doppelgänger Guise comes with several special modifiers. First, it grants you a new skill called Unhinge. This skill acts as a toggle, allowing you to switch between being sane and insane. While sane, you benefit from two modifiers: 40 to 60% more Critical Strike chance and the ability to destroy enemies killed by your hits. When you toggle the Unhinge skill, you become insane, and these modifiers are replaced.

 

↖ Defensive properties

The real strength of this body armor lies in its defensive properties. While sane, you receive a substantial 30 to 40% less physical and Chaos damage is taken, which applies to all forms of damage, including damage over time effects like bleeding, corrupted blood, and poison. Additionally, you regenerate 10% of your life over one second when hit while sane. These defensive modifiers provide incredible damage reduction and reliable life recovery, especially for builds that lack natural recovery mechanisms.

 

↖ Synergizes with certain skills

The Doppelgänger Guise synergizes well with certain skills that deal damage to you. Forbidden Rite and Bone Shatter, for example, both deal with self-damage, which is considered a hit. The less damage taken modifier mitigates this self-damage, and the life regeneration ensures you recover a portion of your life with each use of these skills. Other unique items, such as Eye of Innocence, Scold's Bridle, Heartbound Loop, and Storm Secret Ring, can be combined with the Doppelgänger Guise to enable additional recovery without relying on enemy hits.

 

↖ Divine Flesh

Divine Flesh, a notable keystone, also pairs exceptionally well with the Doppelgänger Guise. It converts half of all incoming elemental damage into chaos damage. This split damage is further reduced by the less chaos damage taken modifier. Moreover, Divine Flesh's damage reduction applies not only to hits but also to damage over time effects. This means that harmful elemental damage over time, such as ground effects in boss fights or ignite, is significantly mitigated when using the Doppelgänger Guise in combination with Divine Flesh.

 

If you choose to utilize Divine Flesh, you can take advantage of the new Armor and Energy Shield masteries introduced in the patch. The 10% of physical damage taken as chaos damage mastery helps mitigate hits, while the 10% of armor applies to chaos damage taken mastery strengthens your defenses against physical hits.

 

↖ Effective for builds

Interestingly, the Doppelgänger Guise can also be effective for builds lacking armor and physical damage reduction. By combining this body armor with additional physical damage reduction sources like a shield mod or endurance charges, you may even be able to forego using skills like Determination. With this setup, you become exceptionally resilient against dangerous physical damage-over-time effects like bleeding. Notably, Octavian, a well-known Hardcore player, used the Doppelgänger Guise successfully in a self-cast Forbidden Rite Cultist build, opting not to rely on Determination for defense.

 

↖ Conclusion

Despite its impressive defensive capabilities and versatility, the Doppelgänger Guise remains relatively underrated. In the current league, only 0.3% of characters in Softcore Trade Crucible use it. Even in Hardcore Trade Crucible, the usage drops to a mere 0.1%. In comparison, the new unique body armor, the Fourth Vow, is significantly more popular in both leagues, with 2% and 6% usage rates in Softcore and Hardcore Trade Crucibles, respectively.