3.7 Cani's Tempered by War RF Chief - mid-budget endgame | Shaper | Guardians | Uber Atziri | UElder

Summary.
1. Introduction.
2. Build.
3. Items.
4. Gem setups.
5. Ascendancy.
6. Passive tree.
7. Pantheon powers.
8. More info.


1.Hello, exiles,

im Cani and this is my first build i decided to share with you because i think there are others like me who may like it and play&enjoy it and even get better endgame gears than me, because i am a lazy player who focus on just having fun playing his own not-meta builds while also kick some endgame bosses on a budget.
One little thing i want to add here is that im from Bulgaria and english is not my native language so excuse my mistakes.

2.Build:

This build is made around one of the new jewels: Lethal Pride /of Rakiata/ Timeless Jewel and specific Avian Twins talisman together with Righteous Fire skill using Chieftain ascendancy class.
The idea of the build is to get 100% of lightning damage from hits taken as fire damage, 50% of cold damage taken as fire damage and 30-60% of physical damage taken as fire damage while we have 86% max fire resistance because we are using Righteous Fire for which it is mandatory and easy to get such high max fire res.

3.Mandatory items and keystones:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Tempered_by_War
The jewel goes into the jewel socket right of Avatar of Fire keystone which we take when it is turned into Tempered by War keystone when affected by Lethal Pride of Rakiata. Minion Instability keystone also turns into Tempered by War so it is w/e which one you pick since both are on our way. This unique keystone secures the bonus life recovery from Talasio Chief's keystone vs any hit, unless we get hit by pure chaos damage /which iirc can happen only in PvP/. It works fine with the high max fire resistance needed for RF skill. And its drawback isnt that bad so we are fine using it.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Avian_Twins_Talisman_(Lightning_Damage_taken_as_Fire_Damage)
This is the type of talisman needed here and the reason is that in the game there are few cold DoT skills and since DoT do not hit, cold resistance would be needed vs those cold DoT skills while lightning DoT skills are just 2 and we can avoid them with ease because we can see them in form of lasers only vs Mineral Pools map boss and safehouse or elder guardian /Eradicator/. This allows us to do not care about lightning resistance and focus only on cold and chaos resistances from gears and tree. Also because we get all of the lightning damage from hits taken as fire damage, this means we use our 86% fire res vs lightning damage >>> we kinda have 86% max lightning resistance against hits. Which also makes the meta Saffel's Frame shield less attractive for this build.


https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Tasalio,_Cleansing_Water -keystone granted from Chieftain's ascendancy class is very important for this build. Free 110% fire res, life regen, bonus life recovery and phys damage taken as fire make our item choice much easier and let us sustain our RF degen and have some physical damage defense without the need to stack thousands of armour.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Watcher%27s_Eye
And a Watcher's Eye jewel granting us two %physical damage taken as fire/lightning damage while affected by Purity of Fire/elements is a good and needed part for the build to be ok vs physical damage. Together with Tasalio keystone it grant us easy 30% phys damage from hits taken as fire damage which is filtrated by our 86% fire res without counting the using of a Ruby flask, Pantheon God powers or else.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rise_of_the_Phoenix
Old school RF shield is back. Since this build is using fire resistance vs lightning damage from hits and 50% of cold dmg taken as fire dmg, Saffel's Frame shield isnt better, especially when RotP shield grant us flat life and 1% extra fire res.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Taste_of_Hate
This well known flask fits very well into the build to grant additional physical and cold damage defense at same time.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kaom%27s_Heart
Another well known item with its huge flat life which makes it also a core and cheap item for this RF build. The extra fire damage is welcome for the RF damage. Could be replaced by gg max life/str/regen rare armour which would worth only in case of a big need for sockets or too many exalts stacked in stash.


Such Elder RF helmet is needed in case of using Kaom's Heart. Thanks to the free fire resistance from Tasalio keystone and Tempered by War+Avian twins talisman we can be just fine with the lack of resistances on our helmet too.

Any other item should have life and: cold resitance, strength, chaos resistance, dexterity or fire damage. 75% cold resistance while using Tempered by War and high tier life+str are what is needed the most. Dexterity points and some chaos resistance are needed too because we lack them, while the fire damage is the endgame upgrade of the build.
Magic Ruby flask and Blood of Karui unique flask are good defensive flasks /Blood of Karui flask is best life flask for me because rest life flasks cant recover our tons of HP in 1 use without a drawback/.

Upgrades on items:

-RotP shield with corruption for +2 levels of socketed aura gems
-1H mace with implicit for elemental damage and as much as possible fire/DoT/burning damage mods
-jewel with up to 3 damage mods and 1 life mod
-opal ring with fire damage mod
-same Avian Twins Talisman type with fire damage, strength and life mods
-Stygian Belt allowing the use of an abyss jewel with life, DoT and life regen mods in it
-Horror crafted Elder RF Helmet for pseudo 7L
-double corrupted Kaom's Heart for even more extra damage
-max tier life+str on items
-life recovery bonus from belt and/or watcher's eye
-level 21 gems with 20%quality on our RF setup and auras
-Witchfire Brew unique flask is maybe best damage boost flask if you need

My gears /as example/:



4.Gem setups:

-RF +Elemental Focus +Efficacy +incr.AoE > in the RF helmet that already have Burning damage and Concentrated effect support gems; btw with bad base and problems to get the last blue socket, just put incr.Duration support gem in a red socket and make sure you use Vaal RF because it grants great damage boost vs bosses or tanky rare mobs.

-CWDT + Flammability + Wave of Conviction > easy to proc setup that boosts the RF damage; swap Flammability for Enfeeble in need of more defenses.

-Purity of Fire, Purity of Elements/Cold, Flesh&Stone/Arctic Armour > in RotP Shield; Flesh&Stone is what i decided to use in Sand stance for defense but Arctic Armour can be better in general if you stay stationary like if you decide to use other stationary bonuses and skills. Best would be Vitality if you get the W.Eye jewel for bonus life recovery rate while affected by Vitality+phys taken as fire/lightning too. Enhance lvl3-4 support for 2 of auras would be needed.

-Cyclone +Fortify +Infused channelling > amazing combo imo; grant us Fortify defensive buff and Infustion buff which in this case grant us additional physical damage defense while also we hit and move so we can proc Elemental Overload bonus damage, Elemental Equilibrium /since we deal physical, cold and lightning damage/, avoid some attacks and spells while moving and on top of that we can hit often and cover in ashes the rare and unique enemies thanks to Hinekora Chief's keystone bonus; if we have - mana cost of skills mod on ring we can spin forever while alive. I like and how smooth and enough is the movement speed with Cyclone and burning enemies to death if they are not tanky rare ones.
Only drawback here is that Corrupted Blood can kill us if we hit such mob and do not drink an anti-bleed potion.
Careful with animation cancelling if you want to cast a spell while holding the Cyclone button.

-Steelskin > maybe not better than Immoral Call but since i do not use endurance charges and do not time perfectly, the shorter CDR and longer duration made me pick this skill to boost my eHP every few secs.

-Flame dash +Blood magic +Phase Run +Decoy Totem > utility skills where only Decoy Totem worth few words: it is used mostly to grant us Arohongui, Moon's presence keystone for bonus defense and damage from Chieiftain ascendancy class + it can be useful in many situations tho totem life is not amazing.

--Scorching Ray +Infused channelling +Blood magic +Faster casting > i have not tried this combo, because it do not fits my playstyle /which is around Cyclone hit&move while burn enemies to death/ but in theory Scorching Ray+Infused channelling combo should grant us fire Exposure and fire Infusion. Fire exposure is what Wave of Conviction grant us; fire Infusion buff is similar to the physical Infusion buff i get from Cyclone+ Infused channelling combo but since SRay skill got fire tag we get 8% less fire damage taken from hits and 10% more fire damage. IMO this combo would be good if used with Soul of Tukohama minor god power or Soul of Gruthkul minor god power, BUT staying stationary could be dangerous and i would recommend it only against specific bosses if you want more damage.

5.Ascendancy choices:

-Tasalio #1
-Ramako #2
-Hinekora #3
-Arohongui #4
--Valako - instead of Hinekora and Arohongui, if want to work around endurance charges and Immortal Call - and even combo it with Precursor's Emblem ring if you have the $$$

6.Passive tree:

Bandits: 2 points.

PoB link: https://pastebin.com/j7f6E5ai

PoE Planner tree: https://poeplanner.com/ABEAAP0AETEAAHvG2FhjPfzEWPZIXz8UIO8OwQR5aKluWK826AHnG_ol36QZFE38S7yfGJF34wHchNlHfr02ZU2-pxpVYSGE79rBdO0FLS5T02_AGngNtfI1kti9bzv-j03jplc64fJF_gq3PkGH-ehodNpilKAYVoLHKPqYrbiTHNyPGuvumuBFnVNSpwjYJFZIj0ZR-80WHxgdFK-Nm6H316yY8Ww22EkbKo3sVSGwNPeXhS6UOlhVxvrSFm_jaiSqNukSaRcccXkVUDLRRUfAZgSzogDwH2jyfA6nVVugQ8iu_4KbMPg62CcvkFUaOCPmvWAWC3uzJ_7vqzqUBsMAAAAAAA==

Note: in-game i have 9.7k HP on lvl 93 which is higher than PoB number because Lethal Pride of Rakiata timeless jewel empowers nodes in its area and the Might strength notable gives me 4% incr.life on top of 2-4 extra strength points on each point. The jewel do not appear in PoB to me even when i import my tree&items so this difference should be from it.

Leveling:

Nothing special here- you go for Elemental Overload, but pick life regen here and there around your path, then go for Avatar of Fire or Minion Instability after you get the jewel socket between them /to place your Lethal Pride of Rakiata jewel/ and for desert are the fire damage points with some life points left around your path. It is up to you to get some damage points earlier tho jewels and gears can be helpful here. If you find/craft jewel with 2x damage mods you can get life points from tree and vice versa.

I started to use RF skill on level 60ish and before that i used Herald of Agony, but it is fine to finish acts and get 66-68th level before start with RF if you are ok with that. Leveling auras and supported gems for RF is important if you do not want to buy them. With enough life on your gears you can get Pyre rings as budget temporary gears as far as you do not have any cold damage to attacks on gears which can screw the Elemental Equilibrium buff and lower your RF damage.
Tasalio keystone from Chieftain you get on first lab grants huge fire resistance and also you need Purity of Fire for RF /for higher max fire res/, which means you can get Purity of Ice or Elements and care less for resists on gears which also means you can get high tier life gears cheaper /life+3 resists and life+2res+strenght are more expensive than life+1res+str/. But get some armour/Basalt flasks vs physical damage before you get your Watcher's Eye and Taste of Hate.


7.Pantheon:

-upgraded Soul of Solaris/Arakaali major god power and Soul of Abberath minor god power

Reduced fire damage taken while moving from Abberath fits well with all the x damage taken as fire damage.
Soul of Solaris major god powers vs Legion rare mobs and crit map mods is worth using imo.
But upgraded Soul of Arakaali is also amazing and maybe better in general. Monsters' poisons, bleedings also caustic clouds and desecrated grounds will trigger the extra life recovery when they end or you stop/exit them which is great for RF builds.


8.More info:

Gameplay is: cast RF>run into mobs> spin to proc buffs and move/dodge stuff> use Ruby and Taste of Hate flasks vs rare mobs who are tanky> repeat. VS bosses or tanky rare mobs: cast Vaal RF, spin to proc buffs, use flasks if the boss is about to hit you before die, end. Without Vaal RF bosses will survive few seconds longer up to t15 maps but usually there are just a few that could be annoying by default and rest could make you pay some attention only if buffed by map mods.

Cannot regen life OR %less life recovery together with -%max resists are the only 2 mods to avoid as RF.
Only %less recovery or only -%max resists are doable map mods if you play very careful and i recommend to run them only in up to tier15 maps, unless you put efford and $$$ to play with bonus life recovery belt&Eye or/and end.charges+Valako. In the budget case you need to spam life and ruby flasks in order to sustain the RF degen in such maps and also TP out until find the boss or if you run out of flask charges in boss fight or any other strong enemy /Legion general or grouped rare mobs/.
Curses are not a problem, but you better spam Taste of Hate and Basalt flasks vs Frostbite/Ele weakness and Vulnerability curses. Fire resistance is 200%-ish easily and lightning resistance is something we do not need. Also anti-curse flask mod can be useful, but mostly vs Temp Chains curse which is annoying and not a problem.

I have not tried just a few bosses, because they are too rare, timer-based or rng-gated. Aul and Kurgal in Azurite Mine, Maraketh emblem, Chayula's domain, HoGM, Uber Elder.
But im pretty sure they are all viable with this build in order to kill them if fix chaos resistance /Chayula/, ignore loot loss/Maraketh/ and have idea wtf they do/vs rest/.
Else it is easy to get Atlas completed up to 158-159. Do Pale Court, Shaper, red Elder, Uber Atziri, Breachlords, Emblems, shaper and elder guardians, 14/15 memories without even upgrade our helmet for the pseudo 7L and all that deathless if you pay attention.

The build gets easily over 10k HP and 600k buffed Shaper DoT on level 94 with some investments /but not min-maxing/. Or 9.5k HP and 450k buffed Shaper DoT on a budget of several exalts on level 93.
Selfcrafting and farming for some of the items is not that hard, thanks to the uniqueness of the build. Item prices can be higher in start of a new league but it is like that for almost all builds.

I do not plan to waste my time recording videos because i need to check for a quality video recording program, learn it, download it, create accounts to record and share videos. But i may do that if many players like this build.

Pros:
-easy and cheap to get needed gears
-can kill all bosses /if you have the experience to fight them/
-can run all but 2 map mods
-noob-friendly

Cons:
-2 more uniques needed to work or it will be a copy of the regular RF build
-can RIP easily if you do not pay attention or got bad luck vs grouped rare mobs
-clearspeed is just ok
-not best RF build
-not SSF/ HCSSF-friendly

I hope some of you will like this build and try it and share the experience and upgrades about it. Good luck and have fun, exiles!

NB: for some stupid reason we /or just i/ cannot see the change of life regen from the extra life recovery from W.Eye jewels when i use Vitality or elder belt and even Tasalio's bonus in-game but in PoB you can boost your life regen by life recovery rate belt and jewel to check the actual life regen.
NB2: for red Elder frost wall may be a core spell to deal with the mobs from portals while saving Shaper if you want the jewel. Cyclone is not stopped by frost walls.
NB3: in Blight league i may try new class, but if the jewel is still cheap i might try to use it because it is good for RF imo, but resists may be a problem if want to keep it on budget.

reserved