Path of Exile 2: How to Get Crumbling Maul

 

In Path of Exile 2, powerful two-handed weapons like the Crumbling Maul can significantly shape your build, especially for players favoring Strength-based melee classes like the Juggernaut, Berserker, or the newly revealed Warlock. The Crumbling Maul stands out not just for its raw damage and visual style, but for its synergy with stun mechanics and slow, deliberate strike timing. If you're looking to POE2 Currency acquire this unique or rare weapon, here's everything you need to know—from drop locations and farming tips to build synergy and crafting options.

What is the Crumbling Maul?

The Crumbling Maul is a two-handed mace-type weapon introduced in Path of Exile 2. It boasts:

High base physical damage

Above-average base stun duration

Slow attack speed

Massive Strength scaling

Often features implicit modifiers like "Increased Stun Duration" or "Chance to Knock Back on Hit"

While it may not boast the fastest attack rate, its lethality comes from overwhelming enemies with raw burst damage and control through stuns or knockback.

How to Obtain the Crumbling Maul

There are several ways to get your hands on the Crumbling Maul in Path of Exile 2, whether you're just starting out or farming endgame zones.

1. Natural World Drops

The Crumbling Maul can drop as a natural loot drop in specific zones and acts, particularly those that favor Strength-based enemies or Marauder-style regions.

Best Areas to Farm:

Act 2 – Ruined Temple and The Bramble Hollow

These areas are swarming with hulking, melee enemies that are likely to drop maul-type weapons. Crumbling Maul is often found here between levels 20-30.

Act 3 – Broken Bastion and War-Torn Fields

These zones are filled with barbaric tribes and siege golems, which have a high drop chance for heavy weapon bases.

Early Endgame Zones (Level 40-60)

Areas like The Crater, The Ashen Forge, or The Iron Wastes often reward farming efforts with rare base items like the Crumbling Maul.

Use increased item rarity and quantity gear while farming to enhance drop chances. Modifiers like "% increased chance for rare items" and "% chance to drop higher-tier items" help immensely.

2. Vendor Recipe System

Like many PoE weapons, the Crumbling Maul can be acquired via vendor recipes. While there's no unique vendor recipe for a guaranteed Crumbling Maul, certain combinations will yield rare two-handed mauls, which can be upgraded or corrupted into Crumbling Maul variants.

Suggested Recipe:

1x White Two-Handed Maul

1x Blacksmith's Whetstone

1x Rare Rustic Sash (with physical damage modifier)

This will yield a rare Crumbling Maul or a rare two-handed maul with a chance to hit the Crumbling base type. Repeat this recipe until you get a suitable base to work with.

3. Gambling with Roguelike Mechanics (Azkari Caves & Shadow Vaults)

Path of Exile 2 features roguelike mechanics in dungeons like the Azkari Caves or Shadow Vaults, where you gamble tokens for random loot drops. The Crumbling Maul often appears in chests labeled "Brutal Arms", "Titan's Cache," or "Warlord's Hoard."

These caches have a high chance of dropping heavy weapons, including mauls with high Strength requirements. Bring a lot of reroll tokens or keys to increase your chances.

4. Crafting a Crumbling Maul

If you manage to obtain a base Crumbling Maul, you can customize and upgrade it through crafting:

Use Essences: Especially Essence of Rage or Essence of Contempt to roll high physical damage modifiers.

Use Fossils: Try Jagged Fossil (more Physical mods) and Heavy Fossil (more Strength mods) in resonators.

Use Orbs: Alchemy or Chaos Orbs for random rare rolls; Regal and Exalted for upgrade attempts.

If you're looking for the perfect Crumbling Maul, prepare to sink time into crafting. Use Harvest Bench crafts (like "add physical mod," or "reroll prefixes/suffixes") to target specific mods such as:

"+X to Physical Damage"

"Increased Stun Duration"

"Enemies Hit are Knocked Back"

"Hits Cannot Be Evaded"

5. Trade with Other Players

If you're short on luck, time, or patience, the player economy is your friend. Crumbling Mauls are often traded on player-run marketplaces or in-game via trade chat and guilds. Use the following tips:

Search for "Crumbling Maul" or similar bases in trade tabs.

Look for item level 50+ if you plan to reroll or craft for endgame content.

Use the PoE 2 Trade API (when available) or Discord trading channels for reliable access.

Best Builds for Crumbling Maul

Due to its slow but hard-hitting nature, Crumbling Maul synergizes well with the following builds:

Stun Berserker: Focused on stun locking enemies while ramping up Rage for bonus damage.

Earthquake Juggernaut: Use Earthquake or Ground Slam for powerful AoE and synergy with slow attack speeds.

Bone Shatter Slayer: Combines raw damage with scaling bleed and self-damage interactions.

Warlock Physical Thorns Build (new in PoE 2): Reflect damage and thorns combined with slow but crushing blows.

You'll want to prioritize passive tree nodes and ascendancies that boost:

Melee damage

Stun duration and chance

Strength scaling

Physical damage and bleeding

Final Tips

Quality your weapon with Blacksmith's Whetstones before crafting for more base damage.

Consider linking it to support gems like Pulverise, Brutality, and Fist of War.

If you're leveling with this weapon, use Weapon Swap to carry a faster weapon for trash mobs and reserve the Maul for bosses.

Conclusion

The Crumbling Maul is not only a devastating tool for melee players in Path of Exile 2 but also a core part of many meta builds thanks to its synergy with stuns and strength scaling. Whether you're farming early zones, crafting the perfect base, or diving into the roguelike dungeon system for loot chests, this weapon is worth the grind. Master its slow but brutal playstyle, and cheap POE 2 Currency Orbs you'll crush your enemies—literally.

Let your hammer fall.