Wrecker's 3.14 RF Chieftain build (not a guide, sorry!)

I tinkered with this RF Chieftain build a bit. Link's at the bottom, but there's a preamble for people less familiar with PoE.

Here's an important notice for people looking at RF characters:

There are some fairly cheap upgrades you can get in any given league. One of them being a helmet which acts as a 6-link for RF, the other is a chest with no sockets but huge, huge HP.

Also, I dislike support minions like Stone Golem, or Holy Relic, because they aren't as reliable as I'd like.

To accomodate this, I've removed them from the equation, shuffled gems around to keep everything EXCEPT the minions, and behold!

Another build which allows steady gear progression at a cheap cost. It doesn't require uniques, but many useful uniques are dirt cheap for Righteous Fire. Same for a sub-optimal RF helm, which works for a while.

The link is below, after the note. If you want to scale damage even higher, you'd need to look at cluster jewels which have Burning Bright.

Note: Let's talk about Immortal Call before the POB link. In Wrecker's OG build, it procs less often. This means it's easier to maintain your Endurance Charges. In this build, Immortal Call procs much more often. The tradeoff is:

+ You proc the damage buff from the Chieftain ascendancy more often;
+ You have more commonly higher EHP;
+- You do not have to be Wrecker, you can use Shield Charge, gaining fortify and inspiration charges. This layers on top of Immortal Call.
- Endurance charges are harder to maintain.

Since you're likely better geared at this point, the endurance charges aren't an issue, and I find most of the time I have 7-9 in gear with this build. I left Immortal Call off in the POB to avoid gaming numbers.

This POB I've made also functions without any gear, but is intended for people who want a path to pre-intermediate/intermediate advancement. Wrecker's build is better IMHO for a fresh campaign finish, but once you acquire the Helm, swapping to this with Kaom's is solid. Since it's just a gem change, the tree is the same, and it doesn't take much readjustment.

Kudos to Wrecker for the OG build. Here's mine:

https://pastebin.com/HMjA93ck

Check out the Easy, Easy Upgrades tab on the item screen.

Update: I organized everything better & included a cheap gear profile & a level 100 profile with jewels. This is not mandatory, but it's there for farming motivation.

https://pastebin.com/HMjA93ck

"

Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

I likely won't do another CI guide until flasks are changed. I loved the build, but I was too dependant on flasks to rid myself of all the different ailments that I needed to avoid as CI (Burning, Freeze, Bleed). What I'll likely do is link ShakCentral's CI guide in my guides. He has a "Wrecker" version in there for those that like few clicks.

Totally get what you're saying, couldn't ramp up my reaction speed on flasks and had to ditch the CI build. Still, a SSF friendly vortex focused life-occultist would be interesting (vortex variant of AW gunslinger maybe?).

General note: it's fantastic to see the diversity of builds/ guides you've brought up. Will probably try your melee duelist next. Don't have anything against minions or witches (in-fact updating my slo-mo zombies to bone zombies is at the top of my to-do for the next reset), but would love to try Slow-mo 1-2 click shadow/ templars if they are possible. Any pointers would also be interesting.

"

SalvatoreBlack wrote:

Spoiler

Totally get what you're saying, couldn't ramp up my reaction speed on flasks and had to ditch the CI build. Still, a SSF friendly vortex focused life-occultist would be interesting (vortex variant of AW gunslinger maybe?).

General note: it's fantastic to see the diversity of builds/ guides you've brought up. Will probably try your melee duelist next. Don't have anything against minions or witches (in-fact updating my slo-mo zombies to bone zombies is at the top of my to-do for the next reset), but would love to try Slow-mo 1-2 click shadow/ templars if they are possible. Any pointers would also be interesting.

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I love Vortex. And a life-based Occultist. I love curse investments a lot. Having a really efficient Temporal Chains is so fun. It's just a HUGE investment that really spreads the tree out thin and doesn't leave much left for the rest. We'll have to see. Thanks for the notes though. I'll keep it in mind.

Hi Wrecker and alls,

as I wrote in the orginal thread, I like your precisely elaborated builds and Righteous fire Chieftain and Bladestorm Gladiator were and still are my favourites.
In RF I made some little changes - didn't go to Heart of Flame and Breath of Flames and instead went to Constitution life cluster. Also grabbed Call to Arms for maintaining Enduring Cry and I have to say that this passive has saved my ass several times.
Now I'm currently at level 94, somewhere around 8,400 live, and I'm playing solo-self found. Tier 16 maps are not a problem unless they have some crazy combinations (I prefer to avoid them). The Syndicate Mastermind, three Shaper Guardians, three Elder Guardians and Atziri managed without any problems. I haven't had the honor with Shaper or Elder yet. I didn't humiliate Sirus (although I didn't miss much), but rather by not being able to react to game mechanics in time.

So for me, this build is strong enough to play all the end game content and Labyrinth is completly joke for it.

"

Zdenda_p wrote:

Spoiler

Hi Wrecker and alls,

as I wrote in the orginal thread, I like your precisely elaborated builds and Righteous fire Chieftain and Bladestorm Gladiator were and still are my favourites.
In RF I made some little changes - didn't go to Heart of Flame and Breath of Flames and instead went to Constitution life cluster. Also grabbed Call to Arms for maintaining Enduring Cry and I have to say that this passive has saved my ass several times.
Now I'm currently at level 94, somewhere around 8,400 live, and I'm playing solo-self found. Tier 16 maps are not a problem unless they have some crazy combinations (I prefer to avoid them). The Syndicate Mastermind, three Shaper Guardians, three Elder Guardians and Atziri managed without any problems. I haven't had the honor with Shaper or Elder yet. I didn't humiliate Sirus (although I didn't miss much), but rather by not being able to react to game mechanics in time.

So for me, this build is strong enough to play all the end game content and Labyrinth is completly joke for it.

Awesome Zdenda_p! Thanks so much! I appreciate the post and feedback. It's VERY helpful. I checked out your character and am impressed with your gear! Yet, you did it all without fancy gear too. Nice work!

Thanks for the helpful and kind post :)

Update: In spite of being a new and uber-casual player, with mostly trash gear, just reached level 90 with this (with slight variations). This is the first time I got to 90 with any character! While 85-90 was a grind, it has definitely been a really fun character to play.

I guess I still have mostly trash/ non-optimized gear (some uniques I found + some ok rares with limited/ no crafting), and 5.7k life with RF on. Also so far I had been unfamiliar with most maps, map bosses etc. With that as caveat/ context, a few observations:
1. White and yellow maps have been mostly quite easy.
2. 0-1 watchstone conquerors seemed easy (mostly deathless iirc).
3. Shallow delve (level 90-110) seems super easy, and great for levelling (vs. earlier necro builds).
4. T10 and the few red maps I tried have been a roll-of-dice (completion for normal map is easy, but getting atlas bonus on rare/ corrupted maps has varied from challenging to impossible).
5. 2 watchstone Veritania was a nightmare. Hard to get in RF range while avoiding the storm.

In general bosses with high DoT zoning (e.g. laboratory map, veritania) could be a challenge.

Definitely hoping to see this as a full RF Chieftain guide at some point of time (maybe next league if it's still viable).

"

SalvatoreBlack wrote:

Spoiler

Update: In spite of being a new and uber-casual player, with mostly trash gear, just reached level 90 with this (with slight variations). This is the first time I got to 90 with any character! While 85-90 was a grind, it has definitely been a really fun character to play.

I guess I still have mostly trash/ non-optimized gear (some uniques I found + some ok rares with limited/ no crafting), and 5.7k life with RF on. Also so far I had been unfamiliar with most maps, map bosses etc. With that as caveat/ context, a few observations:
1. White and yellow maps have been mostly quite easy.
2. 0-1 watchstone conquerors seemed easy (mostly deathless iirc).
3. Shallow delve (level 90-110) seems super easy, and great for levelling (vs. earlier necro builds).
4. T10 and the few red maps I tried have been a roll-of-dice (completion for normal map is easy, but getting atlas bonus on rare/ corrupted maps has varied from challenging to impossible).
5. 2 watchstone Veritania was a nightmare. Hard to get in RF range while avoiding the storm.

In general bosses with high DoT zoning (e.g. laboratory map, veritania) could be a challenge.

Definitely hoping to see this as a full RF Chieftain guide at some point of time (maybe next league if it's still viable).

Awesome feedback! Thanks!

"

CaedwynArgol wrote:

Spoiler

I tinkered with this RF Chieftain build a bit. Link's at the bottom, but there's a preamble for people less familiar with PoE.

Here's an important notice for people looking at RF characters:

There are some fairly cheap upgrades you can get in any given league. One of them being a helmet which acts as a 6-link for RF, the other is a chest with no sockets but huge, huge HP.

Also, I dislike support minions like Stone Golem, or Holy Relic, because they aren't as reliable as I'd like.

To accomodate this, I've removed them from the equation, shuffled gems around to keep everything EXCEPT the minions, and behold!

Another build which allows steady gear progression at a cheap cost. It doesn't require uniques, but many useful uniques are dirt cheap for Righteous Fire. Same for a sub-optimal RF helm, which works for a while.

The link is below, after the note. If you want to scale damage even higher, you'd need to look at cluster jewels which have Burning Bright.

Note: Let's talk about Immortal Call before the POB link. In Wrecker's OG build, it procs less often. This means it's easier to maintain your Endurance Charges. In this build, Immortal Call procs much more often. The tradeoff is:

+ You proc the damage buff from the Chieftain ascendancy more often;
+ You have more commonly higher EHP;
+- You do not have to be Wrecker, you can use Shield Charge, gaining fortify and inspiration charges. This layers on top of Immortal Call.
- Endurance charges are harder to maintain.

Since you're likely better geared at this point, the endurance charges aren't an issue, and I find most of the time I have 7-9 in gear with this build. I left Immortal Call off in the POB to avoid gaming numbers.

This POB I've made also functions without any gear, but is intended for people who want a path to pre-intermediate/intermediate advancement. Wrecker's build is better IMHO for a fresh campaign finish, but once you acquire the Helm, swapping to this with Kaom's is solid. Since it's just a gem change, the tree is the same, and it doesn't take much readjustment.

Kudos to Wrecker for the OG build. Here's mine:

https://pastebin.com/HMjA93ck

Check out the Easy, Easy Upgrades tab on the item screen.

Thanks for this. Finally got the heart in a drop today, and decided to try it out. Even without a fancy helm (which I have no idea how to craft), shifting to Kaom + 4 link RF did seem to improve survivability and damage vs 5 link chest RF. Decided to drop.
1. the combustion support on wave of conviction, purifying flame 4 link
2. the cwdt on stone golem
3. the holy flame relic
4. inspiration supports on RF and cyclone

Will try to give 2-socket Veritania another shot to test this out.

Also, while the build is gear agnostic (great for stress-free SSF), it would be interesting to know what other uniques work well with this, and other stress-free builds.

e.g. for this RF build:
* Dreadarc seems to work well with cyclone (free and improved flammability)
* Meginord's Vice, Voll's Vision seem to help a lot with regen/ RF sustain
* Rise of the Phoenix (max fire resist) also helps improve sustain
* Kaom's Heart is of course great for life & some more increased fire damage
* Ashcaller is a nice wand for fire damage, burning damage
* Aberrath's Hooves might be nice as well.