Alright, maybe this has been going around and I just haven't seen it but after looking at the idol information on poedb shrines are looking..... illegal?

The plan is this. 11 2-slot idols with up to 35% shrine buff effect each coming out to a total of 385 at the top end. Add to that 75% from The Gull and 40% from Daughter of Oshabi for a total of 500% increased or 6x effect. Obviously these make the shrine buffs very good for character power, particularly when stacked alongside hopefully 9 1-slot idols with up to 40% shrine duration each for a maximum of 360 plus 50 from The Gull again for a total 410% increased shrine duration, or 5.1x duration. With the benefit of solstice vigil we gain another 25% more effective duration if we keep killing rares (and oh will we be killing rares). This brings the multiplier to 6.375 giving us ~287s on regular shrines, ~127s on the lesser shrines and ~64s on the rotating staff and ascendancy shrines allowing each effect to stack a little over 6 concurrent shrine effects per source.

All of this is obviously good for player power but where it gets illegal is when you start talking about farming. Evolving Shrines are available from the scarab of evolution and cause enemies you kill to have a 5% chance to evolve into a higher tier of monster, normal to magic, and magic to rare. The chance scales with shrine buff effect giving us a 30% chance to evolve the things we kill at our 500% increased effect. This means that a white monster has a 9% chance to upgrade all the way to rare. This allows us to effectively add a TON of rares to maps for whatever you want them for. Notably this setup (with a lower power level) has been used to farm scarabs before but now with a significantly higher available duration and shrine effect it should be far more effective and profitable.

Now you might read that and say 'that sounds good but it's not exactly illegal'. There's another overlooked scarab we can bring into play here. The Beyond Scarab of the Invasion causes slain rare and unique monster to spawn 8-12 beyond portals when killed. 4 beyond portals merge to spawn a beyond pack so we get at least 2 packs plus whatever we get naturally from kills. With sufficient upgrade chance we have a reasonable likelihood of upgrading at least one monster all the way to rare, spawning another 8-12 portals, potentially creating a loop. The more enemies we start with the smoother our experience will be, we only need 100% chance for beyond in our map and the endless tides unique idol to get things going.

The last step is how do we turn this into profit? We have a few ways, the first of which is found on 3-slot idols. 3-slot relics can roll both 'beyond monsters belonging to x drop 20-25% more y' and 'rare monsters have 40-60% increased chance to drop scarabs per modifier while 1-slots can roll 'increased chance for beyond demons to belong to x' allowing us to heavily target a specific group. There is lastly 10-15% increased quantity of tainted currency available on 2-slot idols which is the naturally desirable second suffix on our buff effect idols. In order to target scarabs from rares we will want to have a 4-slot relic for 'scarabs are more likely to be rare varieties' as well. This results in 11x 2-slot, 9x 1-slot, 2x 3-slot and 1x 4-slot with the hope that endless tide is 1-slot, otherwise some readjustment will be necessary but not a big deal.

So, for scarabs we're looking at 2x evolving + 1x invasion + 1x horned scarab of nemeses to give our rares +2 mods, leaving the last slot free. We have a few options. Horned Scarab of Awakening allows us to select Imbued Domination for an additional 300% shrine duration bringing evolving shrine duration up to ~455s and improving our rotating 10s shrine effect to just over 100s allowing us to maintain 10 (20?) shrine effects which improves the odds of having valuable major shrines up consistently. Alternatively we can use this buff to invest less into duration and more into effect, giving us even more evolutions. The next alternative is horned scarab of glittering which should be easily scaled during the time we have evolving shrine up as monsters continue to pour in from portals. There are a few other options relating to magic monsters but I don't personally find them as compelling.

So. With all that said what can a shrine build look like? Maybe a little like this monstrosity of pathing nodes?
https://pobb.in/gWROxkU3c6Jm

This is how the numbers look with ridiculous gear and lesser shrines but no major shrines or headhunter buffs against a pinnacle boss which is not a normal situation for what we expect to be doing. We expect to be fighting rares with a full suite of headhunter buffs and most of the common buff shrines like resistance, massive, and impenetrable. The combination of Oath of the Magi and Forest Tracking provide a significant amount of both defense and increased damage. The ability to source increased defenses, speed, and damage from shrine and headhunter buffs makes building a little weird and leads to a lot of pathing.

Anyways, Shrines are cracked.