3.11 - Stress-Free PoE! RF HAPPY: No Required Items! 1-Button Play! SSF League Start-End!

Many thanks for the feedback, Wrecker!

I agree that Meat Shield and Deathmark are maybe not optimal. Deathmark does provide a substantial damage boost (there's a base increase, and then another increase against a marked target), but Meat Shield is less good. Do you have any recommendations for replacements for those?

Also, I didn't think my gear was too bad, but I got insta-gibbed by some trash in a T4 map, with nearly 4k life and a decent chunk of armour, so I dunno what I'm doing wrong. I play these tanky characters because I can't deal with those insane damage spikes, I can't react in time.

I'm getting hurt pretty bad in T5-6 maps as my actual RF Chieftain as well, and it's probably because I am really, really struggling to find usable gear this league. I play in trade league but I try to stick to SF outside of specific build-enabling uniques, and I am just not able to find much. My RF Chieftain has been using the same pair of gloves since around level 40.

But, in other news, as it happens, I did the same experiment again yesterday with a Marauder, this time building out in the direction of your RF tree as proof of concept. This time, I finished the campaign with only 28 points into the tree, including a couple temporary 30 point nodes to keep up with gem requirements.

Obviously I'm not condoning that in any way, it was more of just a personal experiment (because let's face it, no matter how you build, the campaign is pretty much a joke), but the point holds true that Holy Relic and Dominating Blow really shine as a levelling setup for getting RF-ready that requires literally zero investment in the passive tree, aside from maybe some temp stat nodes, but I think your build actually covers the necessary stats already.

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my current experiment so far, which is a hybrid RF/incinerate variant. Again, credit to Wrecker for this wonderful foundation upon which to build. I just wanted to share this in case others might find it fun.

I wanted to:
- Be able to leech fire damage (which you can't do with damage over time, even with the Hinekora ascendency). Incinerate hits so it can leech.

- I wanted to be able to trigger elemental overload consistently. Incinerate hits very fast and often.

- I wanted to max block (I could only max attack block via glancing blow)

- I don't want to have to remember to warcry so I got Call to Arms and put it on my left button, so whenever I move I warcry if it is off cooldown. With Valako if immortal call ate some of your endurance charges, you get them back since you warcried recently.



Here is the POB. Nothing crazy is checked, although the DPS is not shaper.

https://pastebin.com/vErvZL0Y


Yes it needs some specific items but they are all cheap right now:
- 5 link Searing Touch Lathi - 1C for staff, 5C for Jeweler's touch. I was using a Martyr of Innocence for a while (higher DPS for incinerate, higher block) but finally realized it was messing up my Elemental Equilibrium since it adds fire damage to spells.

- Kaom chest - 11-15C. If you run anything other chest you can socket a Holy Flame Totem here to help regen and dps!

- Rings - 1-2 C each. Lose a lot of stats here but at least you get resistance help...

- Belt with life recovery is a bit more expensive, I forgot how much I bought mine for, 10-20C? Life recovery rate is amazing but can be deferred.

- RF helm with burning and conc effect starts at 5C. https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/BRe8Wt8

My character is just 69 right now and just finished story last night, broke even on righteous fire degen using purity of fire instead of zealotry, so I'm not at this POB end plan yet. Still with max block, 6 endurance charges and leech (using an amulet with fire leech for now), I feel very tanky and the damage is OK. Mana sustain is annoying so I have to use an enduring mana flask. Once I get the Tireless passive wheel and annoint Lucidity I should be able to sustain incinerate.

I personally don't like melee so I levelled this toon using 6 link incinerate (Tabula Rasa), with Holy Flame totem/Skitterbots/Herald Ash helping.

"

Megadesty wrote:

Spoiler

Playing my second char here (first was the awesome Slow-Mo-Zombies build) and since one hour I can sustain RF, hell that is fun! Thanks for your brilliant guides.

I didn't read all 30 pages, sorry if someone else mentioned it already, but just noticed that you wrote

"

Minor God:
- Anything you want.

but I discovered that Soul of Abberath reduces Fire Damage taken while moving by 5%. And from my testing, that works!

Hey Megadesty! Thanks for your kindness! I'm glad that both the guides work so well for how you like to play :). Thanks for your praise :).

Don't apologize for not reading 30 pages! No one expects you to. You are absolutely right that the Soul of Abberath works perfectly for this build. Nice job! It synergizes well with Cyclone for sure.

Thanks for the kind post! I appreciate it.

"

StandardFiend wrote:

Spoiler

Many thanks for the feedback, Wrecker!

I agree that Meat Shield and Deathmark are maybe not optimal. Deathmark does provide a substantial damage boost (there's a base increase, and then another increase against a marked target), but Meat Shield is less good. Do you have any recommendations for replacements for those?

Also, I didn't think my gear was too bad, but I got insta-gibbed by some trash in a T4 map, with nearly 4k life and a decent chunk of armour, so I dunno what I'm doing wrong. I play these tanky characters because I can't deal with those insane damage spikes, I can't react in time.

I'm getting hurt pretty bad in T5-6 maps as my actual RF Chieftain as well, and it's probably because I am really, really struggling to find usable gear this league. I play in trade league but I try to stick to SF outside of specific build-enabling uniques, and I am just not able to find much. My RF Chieftain has been using the same pair of gloves since around level 40.

But, in other news, as it happens, I did the same experiment again yesterday with a Marauder, this time building out in the direction of your RF tree as proof of concept. This time, I finished the campaign with only 28 points into the tree, including a couple temporary 30 point nodes to keep up with gem requirements.

Obviously I'm not condoning that in any way, it was more of just a personal experiment (because let's face it, no matter how you build, the campaign is pretty much a joke), but the point holds true that Holy Relic and Dominating Blow really shine as a levelling setup for getting RF-ready that requires literally zero investment in the passive tree, aside from maybe some temp stat nodes, but I think your build actually covers the necessary stats already.

Hey StandardFiend! The supports you choose for SMZ will depend on if you're keeping Summon Phantasms or not. Cause if you are, you're replacing tons of melee supports with generic supports. So things like Maim, Brutality, Impale, Minion Damage...

In terms of surprise damage and tankiness, how busy combat is in this game is a huge factor to death. We don't see spells or attacks coming when we're fighting, we're just avoiding everything or tanking everything. So sometimes what hits us is our weakness. For example, Enfeeble is huge damage mitigation but it only impacts enemy damage. So damage from the environment or on-death effects isn't mitigated. SMZ isn't really a tanky build but it does have lots of mitigation. In terms of your RF character, I think you're right, as your gear improves over time, your survivability with improve for sure. But you have also removed some damage mitigation from the gem setup as well. Maybe slowly add a gem or two that fits your playstyle and see how that helps?

That's a funny thing you have going on, finishing the story with as many unspent points as possible. Good job! You bring up a good point for Dom. B. I'll check it out once I'm finished testing out this other build I'm doing.

"

Chubbypuppy wrote:

Spoiler

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my current experiment so far, which is a hybrid RF/incinerate variant. Again, credit to Wrecker for this wonderful foundation upon which to build. I just wanted to share this in case others might find it fun.

I wanted to:
- Be able to leech fire damage (which you can't do with damage over time, even with the Hinekora ascendency). Incinerate hits so it can leech.

- I wanted to be able to trigger elemental overload consistently. Incinerate hits very fast and often.

- I wanted to max block (I could only max attack block via glancing blow)

- I don't want to have to remember to warcry so I got Call to Arms and put it on my left button, so whenever I move I warcry if it is off cooldown. With Valako if immortal call ate some of your endurance charges, you get them back since you warcried recently.



Here is the POB. Nothing crazy is checked, although the DPS is not shaper.

https://pastebin.com/vErvZL0Y


Yes it needs some specific items but they are all cheap right now:
- 5 link Searing Touch Lathi - 1C for staff, 5C for Jeweler's touch. I was using a Martyr of Innocence for a while (higher DPS for incinerate, higher block) but finally realized it was messing up my Elemental Equilibrium since it adds fire damage to spells.

- Kaom chest - 11-15C. If you run anything other chest you can socket a Holy Flame Totem here to help regen and dps!

- Rings - 1-2 C each. Lose a lot of stats here but at least you get resistance help...

- Belt with life recovery is a bit more expensive, I forgot how much I bought mine for, 10-20C? Life recovery rate is amazing but can be deferred.

- RF helm with burning and conc effect starts at 5C. https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/BRe8Wt8

My character is just 69 right now and just finished story last night, broke even on righteous fire degen using purity of fire instead of zealotry, so I'm not at this POB end plan yet. Still with max block, 6 endurance charges and leech (using an amulet with fire leech for now), I feel very tanky and the damage is OK. Mana sustain is annoying so I have to use an enduring mana flask. Once I get the Tireless passive wheel and annoint Lucidity I should be able to sustain incinerate.

I personally don't like melee so I levelled this toon using 6 link incinerate (Tabula Rasa), with Holy Flame totem/Skitterbots/Herald Ash helping.

Nice work Chubbypuppy! I love the concept! Let us know how it goes as you get into deep maps. I actually used to have Incinerate with the build a league or so ago. I loved it. But that was with the old Ascendancy layout and Leeching Fire Damage wasn't an option at that time. So standing still to channel secondary damage wasn't an option. But maybe now it is! Time for some testing fun! Nice job!

Thank you for the kind words Wrecker. You seems like a really nice guy :)

I just did a T6 with no problem, it's fun to run through mobs and only stop for big packs or yellows. I'm an altoholic so I actually don't have that many red maps to fully test this build out. I may not even play to the planned end of my POB just because I get distracted by new builds all the time, but this is the first time I have a valid RF toon :D

Edit: Just did T8, a little bit of life bouncing :)

Edit2: Elemental Equilibrium MAP mod sucks since I'm hitting, would not recommend, 2/10.

"

Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Spoiler

In terms of your RF character, I think you're right, as your gear improves over time, your survivability with improve for sure. But you have also removed some damage mitigation from the gem setup as well. Maybe slowly add a gem or two that fits your playstyle and see how that helps?

I think the only gem setup I'm missing right now is the Immortal Call CwDT. Part of the reason is that I needed the extra gem slots for my Scorching Ray setup. If I can ever get a 6L chest or staff, I can combine RF and SR into one setup. I can combine them now, but then I lose out on Increased AoE/Concentrated Effect.

But the other part is I'm not sure I fully understand the benefit we're getting with Immortal Call. It seems like trading the regen and defence of the endurance charges for the 2-second defence boost of Immortal Call only after taking a huge hit (because it looks like you level this CwDT fully) isn't really accomplishing more than just keeping the endurance charges up, especially since using the warcry pretty much just instantly refills health anyway.

Maybe you can enlighten me on this one?

"

StandardFiend wrote:

"

Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Spoiler

In terms of your RF character, I think you're right, as your gear improves over time, your survivability with improve for sure. But you have also removed some damage mitigation from the gem setup as well. Maybe slowly add a gem or two that fits your playstyle and see how that helps?

I think the only gem setup I'm missing right now is the Immortal Call CwDT. Part of the reason is that I needed the extra gem slots for my Scorching Ray setup. If I can ever get a 6L chest or staff, I can combine RF and SR into one setup. I can combine them now, but then I lose out on Increased AoE/Concentrated Effect.

But the other part is I'm not sure I fully understand the benefit we're getting with Immortal Call. It seems like trading the regen and defence of the endurance charges for the 2-second defence boost of Immortal Call only after taking a huge hit (because it looks like you level this CwDT fully) isn't really accomplishing more than just keeping the endurance charges up, especially since using the warcry pretty much just instantly refills health anyway.

Maybe you can enlighten me on this one?

Here's one thing:

Valako, Storm's Embrace:
15% more damage if you have lost an endurance charge in the past 8 seconds.

When I was messing with my variant (see a few posts above) I thought about using a max steelskin instead of immortal call. It is also an instant cast so you can put it on your move button, then you have this buffer up a lot of the time.

Unfortunately I also wanted instant endurance cry, for the lazy continuous endurance generation, so the move button slot is taken. I didn't want to push yet another button, and you can't have steelskin and immortal call together since they are both guard skills and they share cooldown.

I like immortal call in general. Yes it takes a hit to kick it in, but if you aren't dead then that temporary shielding can help you recover and escape damage.

EDIT: I did Uber lab last night at level 74. I don't like labs so I normally wait until I'm over-leveled to do them so I can quickly kill him, so doing him 4 levels under is new for me. I got hit and teleported by Izaro a few times but survived them all and killed him in 1 try. BTW turn off your RF while running through the labs and you can get hit by spikes and you will regen it back before they reset. Immortal call helps here too

This toon is so tanky :D I really think having max block (glancing blow) really helps since you have really strong recovery, especially with Tasalio 50% life recovery after getting hit.

"

Chubbypuppy wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you for the kind words Wrecker. You seems like a really nice guy :)

I just did a T6 with no problem, it's fun to run through mobs and only stop for big packs or yellows. I'm an altoholic so I actually don't have that many red maps to fully test this build out. I may not even play to the planned end of my POB just because I get distracted by new builds all the time, but this is the first time I have a valid RF toon :D

Edit: Just did T8, a little bit of life bouncing :)

Edit2: Elemental Equilibrium MAP mod sucks since I'm hitting, would not recommend, 2/10.

Aw. Welll shucks and such ;). Thanks!

I hear you. With a game like this, Theory Crafting is just as fun as playing. Play as much or as little of this as you like.

Just as a heads up, we have EE selected on the tree. So when EE is a map mod, it doesn't change anything for us.