Smith of Kitava Slam Build (with a lot of of questions unanswered)

Introduction

Hey guys, I've been playing a lot in the past month, and I've reached a point where I would probably need some advice on how to improve this build. I haven't checked any guides. I have 600 hours in PoE, so you could say I have some experience, but even after this time, I still consider myself an intermediate player. So all the mechanics, playstyle, and theorycrafting below are explained based on my understanding and experience, and shouldn't be considered absolute truth.

So after this short introduction, let's get into it.

Build summary

I love the fantasy around the Smith of Kitava—a fiery, well-equipped warrior who excels not only at perfecting his body armour, but also at slamming his mighty mace around. Heavily stunning everything in sight and crushing immobilised enemies with an enormous hammer sent straight from the skies. Warcrying here and there to explode the hordes of enemies, and picking the precise moment to shout in the face of bosses so your skills repeat another time.

I guess it is a slow-paced build when it comes to clearing, but heavily stunning bosses makes your life a lot easier. And I think that is where the build shines. I still have some problems when surrounded, but a well-timed dodge and good positioning usually does the job.

*** Update 03.05.2025 ***

So a lot of things have changed since I posted this a few days ago. As the difficulty rises, I need to find ways to keep up with the challenge.

Firstly, I replaced my old jewels. I specifically chose ones with +1% to maximum fire resistance, warcry speed, and increased armour. As another defensive layer, I moved toward the Molten Symbol in the ascendancy tree, which makes fire resistance also reduce physical damage. I’ll try to get Molten Being, which gives another 5% of physical damage taken as fire and adds extra fire damage.

I also shifted my focus away from ‘armour applies to elemental damage’ because I think the investment isn’t worth it. So there was quite a redistribution of skill points yesterday. I went north and took Vengeful Fury, so now every point of rage also grants 1% increased armour. I went south and reintroduced Armour Break, because I reconsidered my decision—and with a little investment, it now also applies to my fire damage thanks to The Molten One’s Gift node. I also took Battle Trance for maximum rage.

I got my third set of ascendancy points and removed the +75% to fire resistance, since my gear is enough to keep me 30% overcapped for Elemental Weakness. I’m now taking ‘armour applies to chaos damage’ and ‘100% reduced critical damage bonus.’

I took down Atziri yesterday—it was an easy fight. I hated Corrupted Blood, so I decided to add that modifier to my boots at the cost of item rarity, and got myself a new pair. I like the idea of being immune to certain debuffs or ailments. With immunity to Corrupted Blood and to damaging ailments like burn, poison, and bleed from the ascendancy node Heatproofing, I’m happy with how my defenses are shaping up.

There’s still a noticeable need for timed dodges, but at least I feel safer in T14 maps.

Rotation and skill explonation

So, to explain the rotation as I understand it so far:

Clearing:

Easy enemies:
1.Infernal Cry
2.Rolling Slam

Harder enemies/some rares:
1.Forge Hammer
2.Infernal Cry
3.Rolling Slam

Bosses:

1.Forge Hammer
2.Infernal Cry
3.Rolling Slam
4.Seismic cry (just when enemies are Primed for Stun or when Heavy Stunned)
5.Hammer of the Gods
6.Rolling Slam
7.Ancestral cry (if enough Glory)
*repeat

This is the simplest way I could put it. Out of all the skills, I absolutely love Forge Hammer. The ability to just throw it—and, if supported with Fists of War, sometimes crush low-health normal monsters—is great. Then bringing hell when warcrying near it lets you AoE everything in contact much faster.

As for slam skills, I only really liked Rolling Slam. All the other slams had some mechanic I didn’t enjoy. So if you have any advice for me, I won’t spec out of Forge Hammer and Rolling Slam.

I like the idea behind aftershock. Having the ability to guarantee aftershocks after using Seismic Cry on a heavily stunned enemy made me remove the Aftershock support from Rolling Slam. I also respecced two nodes in the passive tree—if I remember correctly—that increased the chance for slams to repeat. I kind of like the small window I’m rewarded with, where dumping Hammer of the Gods and a few Rolling Slams just destroys unique enemies—it feels awesome.

Skills
For my presences, I chose:

1.Overwhelming Presence, so enemies are easier to stun.
2.Time of Need, so I could remove all curses—I absolutely hated them in PoE and again in PoE 2.
3.Scavenged Plating, because I love the idea of having a lot of armour and taking hits to the face.

Warcries:
I use Infernal, Seismic, and Ancestral Cry—all of them supported with Exposing Cry, because my attacks are imbued with fire. I also have 100% conversion while under the effect of Ancestral Cry. All of them are also supported by Tireless and Magnified Area. I included an Efficiency support gem to reduce the mana cost so Lavianga's Spirit could keep up.

Slams and Skills:
I don't think there is anything unusual in the support gems I used. I like the combo between Fist of War and Guided Hand from the passive tree—it makes my Rolling Slam quite frequently Ancestrally Boosted when heavily stunning enemies.

Gear:

I try to focus on:

1.Huge amounts of armour.
2.Fire resistance (getting half of it as cold and lightning resistance, thanks to the Coal Stoker ascendancy node).
3.Chaos resistance.
4.Maximum life.
5.+levels to melee skills where possible.
6.Item rarity (this is my personal preference—I like to think it helps, and it probably does. There’s always a feeling that if I don’t use it, I’m missing out on some loot, and I don’t like that. I will always take item rarity where possible).

I think those are the modifiers that are most important.

Weapon:
A good physical damage mace with +levels to melee skills and stun buildup should be ideal. I personally got very lucky early on and found a ~600 DPS mace from a random drop.

Boots:
The ideal boots for this setup would be a pair with:
1.Armour
2.Maximum life
3.Corrupted blood cannot be inflicted on you
4.Movement Speed
5.Chaos Resistance (if not already maxed, otherwise it is your choice)
6.Elemental Resistances if needed.

Belt:
A Linen Belt (%increased mana recovery from flasks) with mandatory % increased flask mana recovery rate. Except that, look for maximum life and chaos resistance. Or elemental resistances if needed.

Flasks:
I started using Lavianga’s Spirit combined with a Linen Belt with increased flask mana recovery rate, which seems to work fine. I’m not sure how it would perform in mana-drain situations.

*Jewels:
Mandatory +1% max fire resistance. Warcry speed keeps shouting smooth, and increased armour adds to our defenses.

For Charms I get the stun immunity, cannot be frozen, and unaffected by slows.

Passive Skill Tree

For my passives I focus on:
1.Armour
2.Maximum fire resistance
3.Rage
4.Warcries
5.Stun Buildup
6.Ancestrally boosted attacks
7.Fire Damage
8.Armour brake

So my thought process goes like this: I think warcries are very useful for this build, so why not boost them? Also, if I’m building a lot of armour, why not use it to defend against elemental damage as well?

I love the stun capabilities in PoE 2 because it deletes some mechanics completely—so I invested points wherever possible. I like rage, especially when it improves my armour and fire damage.

My slams getting those Empowered and Ancestrally Boosted attacks increases their damage, but also creates those green spikes bursting from the ground. Man, those slams have some impact—they’re very satisfying.


Conclusion

I quite like that build. PoE 2 has changed a lot, and I think it is more beginner-friendly now, because I was able to reach endgame content without opening a single guide. I think PoE was very gear-dependent, and now with the new mechanics the game has leaned noticeably towards skills.

So I will put a link to my build at the end, as well as some questions I would love for someone to answer. I haven't hit a wall, but I’ve gathered some currency and I want to at least improve my gear. I just need a direction, because I have always been afraid to spend currency on something that will become obsolete the next day.

When there is a useful answer to one of the questions, I will include it under it if it helps improve the build in some way. I will also update it frequently if some new ideas pop into my mind.

Questions:

Q: I invested some points in Rage, but I find myself always at full bar, so I think some of them are wasted and Rage generation is quite good in PoE 2. So should I relocate some passive points or drop Rage completely?

Q: Should I focus on fire damage or replace it with something like Brutality and keep everything physical? I really like Ancestral Cry and would be sad to drop it. Or maybe I could keep it, but I don't know how Brutality will work with 100% damage converted to fire from Ancestral Cry.

Q: Are there any good uniques that you think would be useful for this build and the direction I am headed in?

Q: I discovered that perfect essences give quite good modifiers, and with the passive tree lacking good maximum life, is it a good idea to look for good rares with an open prefix and slam perfect essences on them?

If you have any other advice, please leave your opinion below. Thank you for your time.

1. https://maxroll.gg/poe2/pob/xo4j2703
2. https://pobb.in/kDVKhFwapp9t

Updates:

02.05.2025 - Gear description, Gem and Passive Tree changes. New build links.
03.05.2025 - Gear description, Jewels, Passive Tree and Ascendancy Tree changes.

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