Welcome to entry in our Keystone highlight series for Path of Exile. In this guide, we will explore the mechanics, interactions, and use cases of the Veteran's Awareness Keystone. This Keystone can significantly impact your defensive capabilities in the game and is obtained by socketing a specific unique small cluster Jewel into your passive tree.

• Obtaining Veteran's Awareness
• Keystone Modifiers
• Understanding the Mechanics
• The downsides of Veteran's Awareness
• Cooldowns and Guard Skill Interactions
• The Upsides of Veteran's Awareness
• Optimizing Veteran's Awareness
• Best Use Cases
• Worst Case Scenario

↖ Obtaining Veteran's Awareness

To acquire the Veteran's Awareness Keystone, you need to socket the Front Line unique small cluster Jewel into one of the outer sockets on your passive tree or in a socket that extends from a medium or large cluster Jewel. Once you've socketed the Jewel, you'll need to spend an additional passive point to allocate the Keystone that branches off from it. The Front Line Jewel is dropped by the delirium bosses, Omniphobia and Cosis, during Delirium Encounters in maps.

↖ Keystone Modifiers

Veteran's Awareness comes with three modifiers that impact your defensive capabilities:

• +10 to all Elemental resistances and maximum Elemental resistances while affected by a non-Val guard skill.
• 20% additional physical damage reduction while affected by a non-Val guard skill.
• 20% more damage taken if a non-Val guard buff was lost recently.

↖ Understanding the Mechanics

The unique aspect of Veteran's Awareness is that it enhances your defensive strength during the duration of a guard skill and weakens it when the guard skill expires. These modifiers apply only to non-Val guard skills, of which there are currently five in Path of Exile:

• Arcane Cloak: Scales with Mana to provide damage absorption and flat added lightning damage.
• Molten Shell: Scales with Armor to absorb damage.
• Steel Skin: Provides damage absorption.
• Necromancer's Bone Armor: Absorbs damage and grants immunity to bleeding (affects minions as well).
• Immortal Call: Reduces physical and Elemental damage taken (duration and damage reduction scale with endurance charges).

↖ The downsides of Veteran's Awareness

The downside of Veteran's Awareness is the 20% more damage taken if a non-Val guard buff was lost recently. When using a guard skill, you gain a buff with a specific duration, which ends either when the duration expires or when the guard's Shield is depleted. Once the buff ends, the downside of Veteran's Awareness remains active for four seconds. This downside can be quite daunting, as it increases the damage you take during this period.

↖ Cooldowns and Guard Skill Interactions

Guard skills have specific cooldowns and share them with other guard skills. For instance, if you use Steel Skin while it is active, both Steel Skin and Immortal Call will go on cooldown for the same duration. You cannot use a guard skill while another guard skill is active. Cooldown recovery rate modifiers can reduce these cooldowns, and the passive skill tree provides specific cooldown recovery rate modifiers for guard skills.

↖ The Upsides of Veteran's Awareness

The +10 to all Elemental resistances and maximum Elemental resistances while affected by a non-Val guard skill, along with the 20% additional physical damage reduction, provide a significant defensive boost when a guard skill is active. This can greatly improve the effectiveness of your guard skill. These modifiers are applied before damage reduction from resistances and other sources.

↖ Optimizing Veteran's Awareness

To optimize the use of Veteran's Awareness, consider using Val Molten Shell, a Vaal guard skill, at the end of a normal guard skill's buff. This replaces the normal guard skill's buff with the Val Molten Shell buff, effectively masking the downside of Veteran's Awareness during the four-second period when the 20% more damage taken modifier is active. Frost Shield, a skill with mechanics similar to a guard skill but without shared cooldowns, can also be considered during this period to further enhance your defense.

↖ Best Use Cases

Veteran's Awareness is particularly valuable for bossing builds that are already strong defensively and can withstand smaller abilities even with the downside active. These builds can utilize the upside of the Keystone to tank devastating abilities using self-cast guard skills like Molten Shell. The additional physical damage reduction provided by the Keystone is especially potent in such scenarios.

↖ Worst Case Scenario

Improper use of Veteran's Awareness or the absence of a guard skill can lead to significant damage and potential character deaths. It is crucial to strategize and time the use of guard skills properly to avoid exposing yourself to unnecessary risks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Veteran's Awareness is a niche Keystone that has specific use cases. In general gameplay, it may not provide significant benefits, and the downsides can create additional problems. However, for tailored bossing characters that can effectively manage guard skills, it allows them to tank devastating abilities that would otherwise be lethal. Proper utilization of Val Molten Shell and Frost Shield can help mitigate the downsides and maximize the advantages of this Keystone.