3.13 Bladeblast Chieftain. GG HC build. high dmg/clear/surv. Blasting awakener! Strong as ever!

update 15/11-2020
added a video of wave 20 simulacrum in 3.12

Update 16-9-2020
i did a fast look at patch notes. and from my first look this is what i can say. TDRL. build is nerfed but still very strong.



Anything below here is from 3.11 but its all still hold true outside glancing blow and divine flesh nerf. also the Harvest craft system is gone.

Update! hit lvl 100, by solo playing this build all the way, gonna take a well deserved break, if i can do all content and hit lvl 100 solo. so can you! #Hardcoreforlife

Most HC versions of Blade blast chieftains look very similar, but there are some options to costomise the tree. one big point is i dont spec alot of aoe notes, so if you want to pimp the aoe clear alot you can take the 3 notes to get the big aoe note in the witch(and drop 3 life notes). another option is you can use the Intuitive leap jewel, in the witch jewel soccet, and get the big mana spell block, the big aoe note, and the herald note on top. this is a great option if you run both herald of ash and herald of purity.

another option is to move some points around and get more cluster jewels going, here is endless options, so im not gonna debate that, you are just as good at figuring something out as me or any els.

Bandits: kill all for +2 skill points. Oak is not a bad option thoe. For early game i can suggest getting Alira, since it gives all res and mana regen, makes mana substain much better. respec it later(20 regrets+ onyx amulet to any vendor)

Ascendancy:
1: Ngahamu flame advance. To be able to convert physical to fire, with Avartar of fire keystone we convert 100% to fire. also gives a 40% avarage more fire damage.

2: Hinekora, Death´s fury. Gives life leech from all fire damage, and applys covered in ash(20% more damage, and 20% slow)

3: Tosalio, Cleansing water. this gives alot of resists, perfect for just before entering maps to counter the big reduction to resist penalty. nice life regen, and phys convertion to fire(a reduction) the best part is it gives 50% inc recovery to all sources, like leech regen, block.

4:Valako, storm´s embrace. this grants change to get endurance charge on kill, +1 endurance charge, regen pr endurance charge. and 15% more damage if used a endurance charge. when you get this i suggest switching from steelskin to Immortal call. Also run as high lvl CWDT you can. make shure your Immortal call never is higher level then the CWDT!!!.

Pantheon

For most scenarios i use for major. Solaris. Arakali can be used in places with degen, or chaos damage.(lab)

for minor i use mainly Gruthul, for the phys reduction.

Soul of shakari for poison maps or Hunter influence.

Ralakesh for LAB.

Yugul for Shaper, or redeemer maps.

Forbidden taste flask i use all the time now, but in start i just used the divine flask. most recently i dropped the bottle faith, so i am using that now, after i crafted my current boot (lvl 99 50%) i dropped the quick silver for Cinder Swallow. until you got propper mana regen use a enduring mana flask with armor mod is really good, els curse is also good mod.

All the gear here is the endgame setup. you dont need it to start!, just get regular rares. With HARVEST its not hard to craft your own super gear so i strongly advice to do that. thats how i got all my gear.

Below each item i added a spoiler how to produce the items. something i first learned after waisting alot of crafts and currency :( save your time and money do it right the first time.

Body armor: here you want to get crusader mod with
explosion mod, phys taken as elemental and life. surfixes just resists:
A more min maxed chest will have 2 influences: crusader and redeemer. to get frency charge on hit mod. its possible for bosses to switch for a Chest without explody mod but more life, this is super endgame luxury.



Helmet: here you want a CONC effect elder helmet with life. you can also get spell block or other good mods on it. a 3 option is elder+warlord for 10% phys taken as fire prefix. i crafted ASPECT OF THE SPIDER here, but that can be used on any base you see fit.you need to craft avoid elements on this item(surfix)
enchantmentyou can use many diff, i got one with reduction to aura, to help on mana and squezy in clarity. try some diff enchants im not shure what is best.



Amulet:I strongly advice to use the turquice base(dex int) since it saves you to not need perf roled dex on other gear, and gives you just enough int to handle everything. here a warlord neck can give you +1 phys gems, phys as extra fire or fire pen. surfixes there is many options like regen, +2 max block castspeed ect. for annoint ARcane swiftness is a must! this note gives 75% spell damage, 5% castspeed 3 block, and vital 20% avoid ailments(needed for immunity) also 20% stun avoidence that is nice.



Rings:here you can get many things, like lvl 22 Herald of ash, essences crafted i got t1 dex on both mine thats very hard. i suggest to get dex on gloves and maby one ring or amulet. makes gearing so much easyer.
For bench craft you want to add the minus mana cost of skills!




Belt: here you want high life. a elder base offers 4 really good mods. phys damage, % life, flat life. and life recovery rate. use a Leather or stygina vise base.



Gloves:here you dont need anything special. the Temple mod extra damage ageinst chilled enemyes are good. but many bases can be used. i suggest keeping your gloves nothing special to open up the ability to corrupt elemental weakness. you need to craft avoid elemement on this item.



Boot Best base to use would be shaper base with 31% + avoid ailments, this is needed to cap ailment immunity. Otherwise you would go for life, some resistances and movement speed. A bigboy-version would have also +1 endurance charges (warlord) or tailwind (hunter).




Shield: THIS item is importent to get "%life gained on block" (Shaper or warlord). Prefixes you really want are the "+2 to all res" (including chaos) to get your res cap to 78-77-77- 87)
Otherwise you want high life spell damage. You can also get good suffixes like block chance. Its possible to combine it with hunter base to also get "+3 chaos res" max but i don't think its worth it vs a high spell damage roll.




Weapon: Here you want a scepter so you can vigil strike, and the % ele implicit is good. what you want is high fire damage, since it scales explody, +1 to phys or spell gem or both. or gained phys as extra fire. many combos can be used. a importent part is it have a open surfix to craft trigger mod. a warlord base is the best since you can also get % damage from endurance charges surfix



Jewels: timeless jewel.
Update for 3.13!!
A stronger alternative to divine flesh is now the other glorius vanity mod combo IMMORTAL ambision(ahuana) and then replica soultether( or the other note + normal soultether). Since divine flesh was nerfed, this combo will give around 8,5k HP + 2500 es, and is more mitigation+ perm leech.

this is something you should work towards getting Glorius vanity this with the Xibaqua role gives Divine flesh. This is a huge defence buff since it reduces alot of ele damage taken, and also phys since we convert phys taken to elemental. its not needed to get going but deffently the chase item of the build.Lethal pride is a good cheap alternative. it can offer alot of good notes, like life, phys taken as fire, fortify effect. more damage. i used this for long. this jewel grants 15% phys taken as fire. 4% life. 20% fortify effect. its for sale btw :D

Cluster jewel: i use A spell damage base with 8 stats to get the Conjur wall note. giving 6% spell block, there is other good combos, like the free arcane surge. if your capped spell block you can propperly use other variants for more juicy mods.

Normal jewels: here you want mods like life, fire damage, area damage, i capped my phys block by this jewels to. you want one with Corrupting blood immunity this is MANDATORY for awakener, but also huge defence in maps since you can explode bloodlines packs in 1 hit and get 20 stacks without noticing. you can also get onslaugth on a abyss jewel, to free up higher lvl movement speed on boots.

So mana substain is not 100% possible, you can get arcane surge on cluster jewel+ effect, and on the tree if using medium Thread of hope unique jewel.
the mana+ spell block note at witch is vital to substain mana, and some regen on gear. you will need to use an enduring mana flask until you got a good setup, doing bosses i flamedash to keep arcane surge active(keep it low lvl to proc often).

Just get some good random rares, I'm not gonna explain anyone how to get regular items. You can find decent uniques that can help you, nothing special here, this is a no brainer. One important note is that you want some DEX on the items or your jewels or spec 2 DEX notes on the tree! You can also annoint some DEX on your amulet later.

here is some examples of leveling items that can aid you

Bladeblast

Bladefall+ the conc from helmet. im not shure if the % on bladefall is bad, but it could acculy be a nerf to single target damage(more aoe of the bladefall)

A very big upgrade for this build is Awakened spell cascade. it allows you to drop 25 blades pr cast when your spamming since unleash is on cooldown. its like a 30% more damage doing most bosses, and also improves map clear alot. its expencive. but deffently a thing to aim for. i first got mine around half way thrue lvl 99, and regret i dident spend the currency earlyer.

Trigger weapon IF you got curse on glove or ring you can maby use purifying flame for free concecrated ground. its regen and more crit chance.

Auras+ ASPECT of the spider(crafted) you can play around with the level of clarity needed, this is not a mandatory skill and can be ofset by good regen or -cost crafts, clarity is in the shield as a 1 link.

Mobility, utility 4link Here we get both effect of second wind with to flamedash and enduring cry. Enduring cry is put on movement bottom so it auto triggers when you move around.

Cast when damage taken until you got your uber lab i suggest using steel skin.

If you can substain your mana without Clarity. You can now put increased duration on the setup

Vigilent strike

So the build is using alot of different mechanics to achieve high survivability.

-Alot of life, 9k and even more with perfect gear.

-5k ish armor depending on items.

-convert physical damage taken to elemental, so here is around 80% reduction of the converted amount. 10% from acendency with 15% crafted chest the build got 25% converted. with other items like warlord or bench craft on helmet it can be 35%, even more items can get this mod.

-With Divine flesh keystone from Glorius vanity timeles jewel the chaos resist is up to 85% and half the elemental damage is taken as chaos, this ends being around 82% resistence to elemental.

-with the shaper prefix on shield giving +2 to max resists(both ele and chaos) the build ends up with 78-77-77-87 resist. So this buffs all types of damage reduction.

-Immortal call on cwdt lvl 20 setup with inc duration support. allows you to sacrifice 5 endurance charges and gain up to 90% phys cap for 3 sec. and 34-35 reduction to elemental. with enduring cry thoes are regenerated fast agein.

-The build have 5 endurance charges. so thats 20% phys reduction.

-Enduring cry gives a short boost of +2k life every time it procs+ 10% phys reduction

-With the keystone Glancing blows and the shield and spell damage + block notes on the tree, and eather 6% block to spells on helmet(elder) crafted or roled on shield or cluster jewel Conjured Wall+ amulet annoint Arcane swiftness we reach cap to block to both spell and attack.

-with shield with life on block(5%) is a huge surv, in general mapping and bossing.

-The accendency gives 50% increased recovery if taken fire damage recently(so phys or fire) with the elder mod on belt 20% life recovery(+20% from fertile catalysts so total of 24%) we reaches 74% increased life recovery. that boosts both Leech, Regen, Flasks and the block. so meaning with 9k life you almost recover 800 hp pr block. and the leech goes up to almost 38% of HP pool pr sec. while being on consecrated ground, we get up to 3+k regen pr sec. why it feels like we almost have insta life regen.

-Ailment immunity. this is a huge factor in surv, since shock makes you take alot extra damage. also chill and freeze can be deadly. this is 100% mitigated with amulet annoint and 2 crafted items with 25% avoidence and a shaper boot.

-Corpse explotions: this is huge for clear, but just as much for survivability, since when the corpses explode deaths effects are removed. like porcupine projectiles and cold explotions in delve.
this is not a must but just something you wanna get. it does nothing for bosses so a high hp chest swap will be better(and keep your nice chest safe in your stash :D)

here just bladefall and then detonate the blades. use vigilant strike on bosses, a neat trick is to do it 2 times in a row to trigger the 15% more damage mod from accendency.

So im not really going into to much detail, i expect most can make a workable stuff, up. and figure out how to combine gems with others and so.
what type of gems to get for different secondary skills at what lvl ect.
Also this is written in the note section of the lvling POB.
Start with groundslam 2h. dash and ancestral totem lvl 4. move to earth shatter lvl 12 with using warcry.
Add herald of purity/Ash at lvl 16. swap to melee phys support at lvl 18.
keep rocking this setup, swap protector for warchief at lvl 28.
Do liberary quest and pick the gems needed for endgame. its possible to swap at lvl 28, but later also fine.
first accendency is the phys convertion, rest is up to you.
when going bladeblast, respec the points in melee and 2h damage into the life route out of maruder.