[3.2] Chieftain Dual Curse Crit Staff Tectonic Slam League Starter

This builds takes advantage of the extremely powerful staff crit nodes that, up to this point, have largely gone unused. However, with Chieftain/Juggernaut being buffed significantly staff skills such as Tec Slam and Sunder can shine as crit staff builds. This is the first build I've made that I actually think is good enough to share. This will not be a nice looking guide but the information is the result of a lot of thought, testing, common sense, and collaboration from a couple friends.

Note this build is currently subject to a lot of change. I don't have infinite knowledge of every unique in the game and tectonic slam is not even on path of building yet(using sunder as a proxy). It's entirely possible there's something obvious I'm missing. Feel free to point it out if so.

EDIT: Tectonic slam is consuming an endurance charge PER hit with multistrike meaning it is extremely hard if not impossible to maintain end charge generation for it while leveling. Whether or not this changes with maps we'll see. For now I plan to not use multistrike.

I honestly don't know if this will work w/o juggernaut end charge generation. Sorry guys. I think I'll be swapping to ngamahu cyclone. :/ I honestly thought it would work favorably with multistrike.

PoB
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/rstwdgw2


Links
Spoiler
There's quite a lot of freedom here.

Tectonic Slam-Ele dmg w/ attacks - Increased Area of Effect - Added Fire Damage - Melee Phys - Faster Attacks(As 6th link)

Use increased critical damage at the 6th link if you're not using/don't have abyssus.
Swap in Conc effect for bosses. Not sure if Inc Aoe will be good. We'll see once the skill is in pob.

Do *not* use multistrike. See above.

Warchief links(with concessions made for pure evasion Rat Cage): Warchief - Ele dmg w/ Atks - Conc effect - Melee Phys - Ele Focus - Faster Attacks

If using warchief totem with a different 6L chest or want to do 6 offcolor, use swap out faster attacks for Added Fire Damage
Blood Rage-Summon Ice Golem-Vaal Haste-Increased Duration

Leap Slam-Faster Attacks-Increased Duration-Fortify

Herald of Ash-Blasphemy Flammability-Arctic Armour

Build stats on paper
Spoiler
400k+ single target dps in relatively budget gear
6 end charges
192% life+3 jewel sockets with the ability to get more
Stun Immune
Ignite Immune
Fast movespeed since I focused this build on clearing ability


Bandits
Spoiler
Take the 2 points, we get more efficient stuff with those 2 points than any of the options.


Uniques
This build largely does not require any uniques because there's nothing on Hegemony's Era that enables the build or anything; it's just a high pdps wep with block and +1 power charges on a base that's notoriously hard to craft. There are, however, a large amount of uniques that are very good for this build. These are the ones I'm considering/plan on using. One of the benefits of chieftain is the +100% fire res which allows you to be heavier on uniques than we otherwise could.
Spoiler
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hegemony%27s_Era
As I said, there is nothing about this unique that enables this build or anything. You can get power charges from oskarm or pcoc on leap slam but if you're not using those then this is the reliable source of pcharge generation. It's just a great unique with high pdps, crit chance, and other bonuses on a base that is just awful for crafting due to large amount of possible affixes. Conceivably, you'd replace this at high levels of gear with a high crit chance base with more attack speed and crit multi. However, since staves are a nightmare to craft and most people dont even pick them up/craft them, it'll be hard to come by this type of staff so Hegemony is likely the endgame wep forever. Just use a high pdps rare staff until you can get this.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Oskarm
Use these only if you go dual curse like on the tree. These are roughly equivalent to a good accuracy roll on gloves while providing some life and a bunch of crit. These also provide power charge generation for clearing. These are not required if you're using hegemony though so if you want to go spiked gloves for higher life+attack speed roll feel free. It's roughly a 5-8% dps loss for those. You also save some points not going dual curse. I personally plan on using these.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kaom%27s_Heart
Standard chest for 2h builds. Lots of life, some dps from the fire dmg roll. See The Rat Cage for its competitor

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Rat_Cage
This is a more offensive option as opposed to Kaoms. This allows you a 6L warchief totem for single target and 15% movespeed. The +100% fire res from Chieftain makes the penalty on this chest maneageable. The increased fire damage taken, however, does make fire dmg rippier and, as a result, while Rat Cage provides more phys mitigation, Kaoms definitely beats it in overall defense due to higher hp and no fire dmg malus. There are a couple other issues with this chest such as it being a league exclusive item for a modifier no one wants to run(Torment) and it being a pure evasion chest. Due to its exclusivity it will likely be more expensive than Kaoms(esp early on). Since it is a pure evasion chest you can't run the absolute optimal links for warchief totem unless you want to try and get 6 offcolor. I'd use RRRGBB for warchief-melee phys-ele dmg w/ atks-conc effect-ele focus-faster attacks. I personally will be using Kaoms at the start for sure. Whether or not I'll be swapping to Rat Cage is to be determined.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Death_Rush
Another league specific unique but this is one is likely to be cheaper since it's not that rare and onslaught is a decent zana mod. It also comes from 2 different cards that're both fairly common.(Hubris, Blind Venture) The main reason you're using this is for onslaught on kill(for movespeed since you're 2h and cant use good movement skills) and the accuracy roll since accuracy is difficult to get on the left side of the tree. This can easily be replaced with a diamond/steel/opal ring if you want more dmg but you'll lose a lot of accuracy and the atk/movespeed from onslaught.You can get accuracy on rare rings but it's a rare roll and often expensive.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Perseverance
Another solid source of onslaught. You're giving up a stygian belt for this but it's still likely a smaller loss than giving up a ring slot for Death Rush

All that said, losing a ring slot is a hefty price to pay since rings have tons of good stuff on them. I'm currently planning on using Perseverance for onslaught(see below).

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rumi%27s_Concoction
Good defensive flask for a block character. Drop if you want more dmg but there aren't many good offensive flasks for this so I recommend using this.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lion%27s_Roar
Amazing dps flask, easily 25%+ more dmg. Definitely use this.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Taste_of_Hate
I recommend this over Wise Oak because it is very slightly less dps than Wise Oak (2ish %) but provides a lot of defense vs phys and cold. Expensive tho

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Wise_Oak
Not that great here because it's only 1 element and it's been nerfed. Roughly 8% dps increase, I recommend ToH over this for better value for the flask slot.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Devoto%27s_Devotion
Movespeed+dex+attack speed. Not as much dmg as Abyssus(not even close) but movespeed is great for 2h builds. I plan on using this for easier maps when I don't need the dmg.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Abyssus
Insanely good for dps. Literally 40%+ more dps. As much as I dislike using this rippy item, crit multi is difficult to get on this build since we're limited on crit nodes and we have quite a lot of phys mitigation with ToH, 6 end charges, and the 10% phys taken as fire.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Promise
Great for any conversion build. We're not AoF so we can use this. Recommended

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Impresence_(Fire)
The free Flammability blasphemy means we can either run Arctic Armour+a purity OR drop arctic armour and run Haste(if you want more dps at the expense of defense and res. If you use this I recommend AA+purity because less reliant on gear for res=more uniques.



Ascendancy
Spoiler
Chieftain
Normal Lab: Ngamahu, Flame's Advance
You can swap to tec slam as soon as you get this node. It'll be more dps and clear than Sunder for leveling even without endurance charges. If you don't plan on doing tec slam until maps you can delay this until Merc lab lab and take the next two nodes first.

Cruel Lab: Tawhoa, Forest's Strength
This+Herald of Ash will provide end charges for you(I'm fairly certain that's how it works) even if you go RT for leveling. Other than that it provides a good amount of fire dmg and regen.

Merc Lab: Ramako, Sun's Light
You want to get this node at this point because it allows easy gearing in preparation for maps and phys mitigation if you're doing uber lab yourself.

Uber Lab: Hinekora, Death's Fury
Just the worst node out of all of them for leveling. Covered in Ash is extremely good for bosses though.


Leveling
Spoiler
Follow the normal pathing but don't take any of the staff nodes until you're getting ready to swap to staves. You might have to use some of the free respec points once you get to maps to do this. Grab RT ASAP and respec out of it when you get to maps since it's very good for leveling. Use Ground Slam to level until you get Sunder and then either use that until maps or swap to Tec Slam after you do normal lab. Make sure to run Herald of Ash for endurance charge generation.


F.A.Q.

Why chieftain instead of juggernaut? IT'S ENDURANCE CHARGES BRO
Spoiler
Chieftain provides far more dmg than juggernaut and I feel the defensive capabilities from juggernaut are overkill. Chieftain also provides a lot of life regen and fire res. The fire res allows us to gear easier at first and, in the endgame, allow us to wear more uniques without compromising res. Additionaly the cyclical dmg buff from the Ngamahu node and the Covered in Ash from Hinekora are a large dps increase for bosses and more than make up for having to use tec slam without endurance charges.

The main thing that would attract me to Juggernaut is the endurance charge generation on single target since it is one of two ways to generate end charges sufficiently on single target for tec slam. However, since staves has the Smashing Strikes node we do not need the juggernaut end charge generation for normal map bosses. That said, jug's sustain means you won't run out of endurance charges on longer bosses such as Izaro/Atziri/Shaper/Elder.

Additionally we get the 2nd part of the phys/fire conversion that we need so we save 2 points that otherwise would be getting Avatar of Fire. Since we're not AoF we can use stuff like Taste of Hate and Atziri's Promise.


Gearing Priorities
Spoiler
Life/Res > All

The staff crit nodes are very good such that you don't need much crit on gear at all. My PoB doesnt even use diamond rings or crit chance jewels.


Jewels
Spoiler
Accuracy/Crit multi and life on jewels. By far the hardest stats to get. Crit multi especially


Other Gearing Options
Spoiler
As I said, I have not explored every option with this in terms of gearing. Things such as Shaper necks giving extra phys as fire are great but I'm focusing on this build being a league starter and good in bad gear. The staff nodes are just that good and provide you with everything you need in bad gear. Feel free to provide suggestions for ultra-high end stuff and I'll consider them for this section.
Last edited by Coil1 on Mar 3, 2018, 2:44:43 AM
Last bumped on Mar 26, 2023, 12:27:49 PM
Excellent post! I think i found the one.
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baket wrote:
Excellent post! I think i found the one.


same here, great work!!
If your dmg is 100% converted to fire wouldnt fire pen gem be better?
I was looking at running something similar to this. However looking at this build w/ tectonic consuming endurance charges and getting all of the +max nodes... How do you think you will be able to sustain the endurance charges?

I don't think the 10% from crit on the staff node paired with the 20% from burning kills will nearly be enough to justify getting max endurance charges. Unless the map has insane density I don't see this build ever capping them out.

I might personally use a warlord's mark for mapping at the beginning of the season to keep my charges flowing.

Maybe I am missing something.
Staves... I want to love this build, but I can't get passed the Staff. I wonder if there's an Axe route... hmm...
Please don't bait people with 500k DPS...your build does 260k vs shaper and 330k vs regular bosses. This damage is perfectly fine, but don't clickbait or try to fool newer players.

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SaracenS wrote:
I was looking at running something similar to this. However looking at this build w/ tectonic consuming endurance charges and getting all of the +max nodes... How do you think you will be able to sustain the endurance charges?

I don't think the 10% from crit on the staff node paired with the 20% from burning kills will nearly be enough to justify getting max endurance charges. Unless the map has insane density I don't see this build ever capping them out.

I might personally use a warlord's mark for mapping at the beginning of the season to keep my charges flowing.

Maybe I am missing something.

You're probably forgetting how multistrike interacts with these types of skills giving 2 "free" attacks. It's the same deal as flicker. You easily get 60%+ crit w/o good gear cause of the staff nodes and since you get 3 chances at igniting and therefore 3 chances at getting end charges from Tawhoa(along with a ~7% chance from Smashing Strikes) sustaining end charges on clearing is trivial. I'm not 100% certain on the interaction but I think the burning overkill dmg from HoA will give end charges with Tawhoa as well.

However, we do not sustain end charges on bosses to any reasonable degree compared to Jugg since Smashing Strieks is not good enough for that. Chieftain still does more dmg w/o end charges than Jugg and Tec Strike has, at worse, similar dmg effectiveness to sunder w/o end charges.

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BasedDong wrote:
If your dmg is 100% converted to fire wouldnt fire pen gem be better?

Nope, fire pen is mathematically worse than all the supports I have on there.

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Please don't bait people with 500k DPS...your build does 260k vs shaper and 330k vs regular bosses. This damage is perfectly fine, but don't clickbait or try to fool newer players.


I mean, I can put on like some decent rares and conc effect and have 500k shaper dps. Not to mention using sunder as a proxy is considerably less dmg than actual tec strike cause of lower dmg effectiveness, lack of benefit to end charges and the attack speed malus. Did you even look at the gear in PoB? It's garbage. 3 affix jewels alone would be another 100k dps.

"
reagan247 wrote:
Staves... I want to love this build, but I can't get passed the Staff. I wonder if there's an Axe route... hmm...

The problem with that is there are no good crit axe nodes and then you're pushed to go noncrit w/ EO which limits how much scaling you can do like any non-crit build.
Last edited by Coil1 on Mar 2, 2018, 5:05:55 AM
very well written and thought out!
really looking forward to play this (hope tectonic is good enough), and playing with a staff is actually a welcome change.
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rvdeh wrote:
very well written and thought out!
really looking forward to play this (hope tectonic is good enough), and playing with a staff is actually a welcome change.

The numbers look good for tec slam just compared to sunder. with end charges it's 184% dmg(the math isnt as clean here because it's a more mod) compared to sunder's 182% and tec slam doesnt have sunder's 15% less attack speed malus(which is huge)
Last edited by Coil1 on Mar 2, 2018, 9:14:25 AM

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