Path of Exile 3.29 Curse of the Allflame brings a new League mechanic along with many other new features, such as new Superior Skill Gems, significant changes to Scion’s second Ascendancy class, Reliquarian, and a completely new Spell Totem mechanic.
This new Spell Totem mechanic completely overturns the traditional limitation of totems being stationary, turning them into crabs that can crawl around and have a tracking effect. The key to summoning these crabs lies in the new weapon, The Crustacean’s Call.
Let’s explore this mysterious spell summoning ritual with POECURRENCY.com and see how players can utilize it in PoE 3.29.
About The Crustacean’s Call
As a newly added Unique Staff, The Crustacean’s Call’s core design transforms stationary spell totems into freely moving Shaman crabs that automatically track enemies.
Core Mechanics
Affected by its built-in Crab Totem Support effect, The Crustacean’s Call converts totems into crab forms. While it cannot synergize with Channelled Spells, these crab totems gain a 100% movement speed bonus, rapidly crawling sideways towards nearby enemies. The staff also directly provides a +2 to the maximum number of summoned totems.
While offering such high mobility, as a compensation mechanism, spells supported by The Crustacean’s Call suffer a 25% damage reduction. Therefore, some players find using crab totems fun but lacking in damage, especially in the late game of PoE 3.29, where the damage cap provided by The Crustacean’s Call is clearly insufficient.
In response to this situation, POECURRENCY.com suggests that players who want to play Crustacean’s Totem build should prepare a traditional, high-burst damage weapon set on Weapon Swap, specifically for dealing with high-difficulty boss battles in the later stages.
Acquisition Methods
Currently, there are three main ways to obtain the weapon in PoE 3.29:
1. Charts Rewards
The Crustacean’s Call can be obtained as a reward by opening Deep Sea Voyages through Charts managed by NPC Valerie.
While exploring high-difficulty Deep Sea areas with Allflame Lanterns to maintain oxygen, defeating specific Deep Sea monsters or opening the final Allflame Chests contains generous rewards, including a large amount of PoE Currency and a chance to directly drop this unique weapon.
2. Craiceann
In the fixed Unique Loot pool of Path of Exile, all Crab-related Unique Items originate from the boss Craiceann in Bestiary mechanic. This is achieved by capturing Primal Crushclaw using a special net from Menagerie, then opening a portal to Craiceann’s Cove to defeat him.
The Crustacean’s Call, due to its unique mechanics, is likely to be added to Craiceann’s loot pool as a new exclusive limited drop.
3. Divination Cards
GGG has added three Divination Cards to Path of Exile Curse of the Allflame for players with bad luck. Each card has its own fixed drop location atlas maps or monsters.
For example, if a player wants to obtain a specific unique item, they don’t need to try their luck across the entire map; instead, they can specifically choose maps that drop the corresponding Divination Card and repeatedly farm them.
Therefore, players can also try to redeem Divination Cards from regular drops of random Staff, but since this is a new item added in patch 3.29, the probability of accurately redeeming it is low.
Of course, if the above methods are too difficult for you, you can also trade with other players on the trading market using Divine Orbs or Chaos Orbs.
Generally, The Crustacean’s Call price may be high in the early stages of the game. Therefore, if your budget is limited, you can buy cheap POE currency from POECURRENCY.com to trade and get this. We not only have ample stock but also offer favorable prices, and most orders arrive within about 15 minutes.
Chain Effects
Another mechanic closely related to totems is Hierophant.
Path of Exile’s Curse of the Allflame, for game balance, has nerfed Hierophant’s Ritual of Awakening, reducing the extra damage provided by each totem from 5% to 3%.
However, its built-in +1 maximum totem cap, high totem placement speed, and strong Mom’s defense support make The Crustacean’s Call the most suitable and preferred choice. It not only maximizes mobility but also improves survivability, so players only need to focus on increasing damage when configuring their gear.
Gameplay Recommendations
Combining The Crustacean’s Call and the special effects of Crab Totem, POECURRENCY.com has compiled four new playstyles around this staff in Path of Exile 3.29.
1. The Cat-to-Crab Build
Link Soulrend to The Crustacean’s Call. This way, the crab totem will continuously launch automatically tracking Void Cats at surrounding monsters as it moves.
Since PoE 3.29 significantly buffed this type of skill, coupled with the crab’s built-in 100% movement speed bonus, the cats can quickly charge into monster hordes and clear them out like mobile turrets.
2. Mobile Bomb Build (BV + BB)
This build requires a rare helmet that provides +1 to the maximum Blade Vortex stacks, such as Starkonja’s Head, to increase the maximum stacks of blades on the crabs.
Also, a glove that provides high casting speed and spell critical strike chance. Because Blade Blast requires a very fast pace, the casting speed provided by the glove allows the player to instantly detonate crabs crawling into a swarm of monsters.
3. Searing Bond Build
The Crustacean’s Call is a two-handed weapon, occupying a weapon slot. However, you can also try placing Firestorm and Flame Swarm as auxiliary fire skills in Crab Totem Support, utilizing the +1 maximum totem stacks and providing a 7-totem chain effect to create a denser line of fire on the battlefield alongside the staff-wielding crabs.
In short, for players who enjoy totem-based gameplay, The Crustacean’s Call and its accompanying army of crabs in PoE 3.29 are more than enough for those who lack early-game strength but want to quickly clear maps and level up.
Even in the late game, when facing insufficient damage, players can compensate by using PoE Currency to upgrade items.