[3.7] Chunky Chargrill Chieftain - Incinerate CwC Volatile Dead - [2x Demigod winning build]

I stream daily at: twitch.tv/celltank

***Update for 3.7 - Legion League***
Updated the skill tree and ascendancy tree to the 3.7 for the levelling assistance image
Path of Building link updated.
Included a CwdT Immortal Call as a recommended gem set up. (I want to test molten shell before switching the Immortal Call over to this skill)
Vaal grace added as a layer of boss defence.

***********************************


Some men just want to watch the world burn... Up Close!
Do you enjoying playing in an aggressive and quick way where you can give a beating but also take one?


Here is a clip of the build while pushing for a Demigod reward in the Incursion Flashback SSF race in a T15 Shaped Belfry against Abaxoth with the map mods of 23% monster damage and 92% extra damage as cold
clips.twitch.tv/BlightedSmallDelicataBlargNaut

This build did go on to win one of the Chieftain Demigod rewards for the SSF Incursion Flashback race as it finished at position 6 of 10 for the rewards.

It also won a second Demigod reward for the SSF Synthesis Flashback race as it finished at position 5 of 10 for the rewards.
Spoiler





This build is designed to be a SSF high level mapper with good overall clear speed, good survivability, decent single target damage (with some work from the player) while not relying on any specific gear other than a 5 or 6 link (farm a tabby in blood aquaducts).

This is a very good league starter due to the good balance of damage, surviability and no gear requirements.

There are a few variants to the build which will be detailed later, but the main body of this guide is to cover a very simple and effective version of the build that is easy to get up and running that can be modified as you wish later.

In 3.7 The chieftain ascendancy gave a small buff to the build. However the change to warlords mark means that mana will be a problem.

Lab enchanted boots with leech after kill are fantastic and will allow you to map with no issues at all. A mana flask will be needed on bosses with no adds though.

Flammability Curse on Hit rings can be acquired through rare delve nodes. This would be the best curse source for the build these rings are fairly rare, this is a luxury item and by no means a requirement.

Gear
Spoiler

This build gets pretty much all of the damage from gem links, abyss jewels and the skill tree.
As a result your gear just needs to focus on life and resists.

The current gear for my SSF Incursion Flashback is found here:
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Cellstorm/characters
The character that won the Syntheses 3.6 demigod is Two_Shot_Explosive
The character that won the Incursion demigod is Cell_Immolation
Please follow the PoB and the most recent levelling tree, as there is some differences in tree and gear for these characters due to the nature of SSF providing different opportunities or problems to overcome with regards to gear. The build is very flexible, so any subtle changes are taken on easily.


A tabula rasa is highly recommended above any 5 link due to the gem links.

The very best in slot item for this build is a Loreweave chest armour with the 80 all res (altered down to 78 in patch 3.6), life, ele damange, crit chance (to help proc Elemental Overload) and base stats (dexterity can become a small issue). It's just hard to think of a better chest for the build.

The abyss jewels are very important for building flat damage for the skill tree to scale up. Look for Hypnotic Eye jewels and try to buy/craft/find ones with flat fire damage to spells and also flat life on these is very important. If you can also get fire damage while holding a shield then you have perfect jewels for this build.

A good unique main hand right now is the Cerberus Limb it seems to only be a couple of chaos in a trade league, this drops from the Vaal delve boss so can be very RNG gated in SSF. There are better options in terms of rare sceptres though, please remember in PoE that well rolled rares will often outperform uniques. Spell daggers and wands are also an option, another area where the build is very flexible.

The Flasks I prefer are:
Panicked Divine Life Flask of Staunching
Chemist's Basalt Flask of Grounding
Perpetual Stibnite Flask of Heat (this flask is OP for these type of agressive in the mobs face kind of builds)
Perpetual Sulphur Flask of Warding
The Wise Oak (this can be a mana flask if you don't have the leech boot enchant, and also a mana is needed for bosses with no adds).


Skill gems and links
Spoiler

Incinerate - Cast while Channelling - Volatile Dead - Combustion - CHOICE OF THREE - READ BELOW* - Fire Penetration (if you only have a 5 link drop fire pen until you get a 6 link)

*Controlled destruction - Still seems fine in the set up I've tested, but it's one of those things you should be mindful of, keep an eye on your buffs and if it isn't up most of the time then perhaps look at how to achieve that or switch to another gem.

Elemental focus - With this most mobs other than the first pack of a map should be ignited by Herald of Ash effects, again be mindful of this. There is a possibility of using another source of ignite to make use of this but without testing it myself I can't say if it's worth it or not, personally I wouldn't be looking at a secondary source of ignite for how I enjoy to play.

Concentrated Effect - This is the one that I will probably be using the next time I play this build. Incinerate got a radius buff to +19 from +15 so it won't hurt the overall range of that too too much and the damage boost from conc effect is great for the incinerate, the volatile dead corpse explosion and the volatile dead spell itself.


Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Arcane Surge

Shield Charge - Fortify - Faster Attacks - Blood Rage (Having two movement skills is very much a weird preference of mine and is by no means a requirement, so pick which one you prefer and go with that)

Desecrate - Spell Cascade - Faster Casting

Herald of Ash - Anger - Enduring Cry

Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Vaal Grace






Levelling
Spoiler


Bandits - kill all for the 2 points.

Levelling for this build can be a little tricky to begin with, mainly as you do not get the incinerate gem as a marauder until you complete A Fixture of Fate quest for Siosa in the Act 3 Library. Then you do not get the CwC gem until you complete act IV and cannot equip the gem until lvl38. Once you have these though you are good to switch over to the build!

If you are in a trade league, or have other characters you can get the incinerate before then and play the build from the get go. If you cannot get an incinerate gem you can level as Cleave then Sunder as you get a hold of these gems. Sunder requires very little gear and skill tree support early on so you can level into the build while still sundering happily!

This image below shows a finished skill tree for this build.

Fill out the skill tree in the following sections:

Green - Red - Yellow - Blue - Purple





Ascendancy
Spoiler

Take the cheiftain ascendancy points in the following order:

1. Tawhoa, Forest's Strength
2. Ramako, Sun's Light
3. Hinekora, Death's Fury
4. Valako, Storm's Embrace



Pantheon
Spoiler

Major - Soul of Lunaris - Fully Upgraded
Minor - Soul of Shakari - Fully Upgraded

These are my preferred pantheons as they patch out a few of the counters that the current content is likely to throw at you fairly often.




Gameplay tips and in-depth discussion
Spoiler

Here is a post I made later on in this thread as a reply to someone who wanted some help with this build. I feel that a lot of the questions and queries I get about this build are touched on in this discussion so please take a moment to read through it.



Let me copy/paste something I posted earlier in this thread that should help:
" I took a look at your gear and your flask game is easily the weakest link of your builds. Flasks in PoE are crucial. Go to a youtube vid or a stream of a player you respect as a good player and take a look only at their flasks when they are mapping/bossing. You see them hitting those flask cooldowns all the time, and not life flasks either. There is so much power, like TONS OF POWER in flasks that if you don't use then end game PoE is pretty much impossible even with absolute best in slot gear, that's how important flasks are. But like I say, don't take my word for that or think i'm personally using flasks as a crutch. Go take a look at any player playing real high end game PoE and look at their flask choices and go and actually watch how they use them.

I have a suggested flask setup for this build on the front page, that would be a great place to start. "

Then also after you have done this have a read of this and see if you can spot anything you are missing in playstyle:

" Raw hp value only means so much if you have no other mitigation.

Do you keep fortify up all the time, fortify + shield charge + faster attacks.

Could you use different flasks? Flasks in PoE are more than just flasks, think of them as a skill rotation in an MMO, flask are integral parts of builds and if you let your flasks and use of them be a weak link then end game PoE becomes almost impossible for nearly all builds. Basalt and stibnite (stibnite blind cloud is striaght up OP OP) bases are hugely beneficial, with suffixes such as warding and heat. Don't underestimate flasks, just watch someone you consider a skilled PoE player for a few minutes, watch their flasks, they are always working them. Always.

Have you upgraded your pantheons? An upgraded lunaris pantheon helps so much I can't understate it.

Do you keep endurance charges up throughout the whole map, no only through the warlords curse and chieftain ascendancy, but also enduring cry to gain charges back during down time or to refresh them during boss fights.

If you are using immortal call I suggest trying without it. I've been killing shaper guardians last couple of play sessions and I don't use immortal call and never have for this build but a lot of people who's gear i've looked over suddenly put it in then don't have the same survivability as me and can't understand why.

Uber lab points are super nice too, the 10% of phys taken as fire is very nice as when we take fire damage our resists kick in, so with 75% fire res we mitigate 75% of this 10% of physical taken as fire, so we effectively reduce physical attacks severity by 7.5%. "

So again I helped another player who was struggling with mention of flasks, fortify and also don't overlook positioning, you could either drop by my stream when I am on or even go my stream and look at my PoE Videos for this week and watch me play for a bit, there could be something very different you are doing with the build that is causing you to have these problems.

Also don't forget pantheons, they make a massive difference to this build. It feels so much better to me once I unlock them, everything is so much smoother!


Path of Building link:
https://pastebin.com/GLnh4ps9


If you have any questions please ask them here and also feel welcome to stop by my twitch stream, if I am live I am always happy to answer anything there.

Celltank
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
Last edited by Cellstorm on Jun 5, 2019, 3:06:21 PM
Last bumped on Mar 15, 2020, 11:01:43 AM
***Update for 3.6 - Synthesis League***
Updated the skill tree to the 3.6 for the levelling assistance image and also in the Path of Building link.
Removed the desecrate totem set up from the suggested skill gems.
Included the 'Elemental Focus' skill gem in the PoB as a precaution to the crit changes.
Consider using Concentrated Effect in place of Controlled Destruction or Elemental Focus.

***********************************

***Update for 3.5 - Betrayal League***
This build will be my league starter in betrayal!
With the changes to how shield charge works using a quick silver flask of adrenaline will give a very nice movement boost while levelling and mapping.
Made a very small change to the skill tree around the Templar area, in the green area of the levelling image.
***********************************

***Update for 3.4 - Delve League***
Bright beak is now nerfed for the shield charge interaction, use a spell sceptre for more sweet sweet dps instead.
Passive tree and levelling image updated for 3.4
Everything else is just as chunky, viable and fun!
***********************************




Here is my end of Betrayal League post from page 27 of this thread.

"Firstly let me give thanks to everyone who has played this build during Betrayal league. Be you a trade league, solo self found, hardcore or softcore player it has been amazing to read, reply and also chat with so many of you over the course of the league.

I shall also thank the helpful people on this thread who have been informative, educational, insightful and respectful to each other. The level of communication I have seen on this thread is an example of just how good of a community of gamers were are here in Path of Exile.

Congratulations to those who made it further in the game than they previously had.

An extra huge congratulations to those who took on and in some cases successfully defeated Uber Elder.

The flexibility of the build is clear to see, people have made their own changes to gear and skill set up and tweeks to the skill tree.

I now see this build as a blank canvass. One that you can put your own mark on and cater to what you have and how you want to play. This puts a big old smile on my face that people are exploring so many aspects of the game through this build.

Newer players can have success and work to becoming experienced players. Experienced players can use their knowledge and understanding of their own style and desires to make this their own!

Thank you!"
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
Last edited by Cellstorm on Jun 5, 2019, 2:28:37 PM
Did a bit of leveling with it, surprisingly fun.

Will try it as a league starter in delve, not having to trade for uniques for a while is nice.

I'm curious how you'll squeeze in righteous fire. I used VRF for boss bursting and that worked well enough (although I killed myself with it plenty too...)
One small update for the new league has been added into the main guide.

***Update for 3.4 - Delve League***
Bright beak is now nerfed for the shield charge interaction, use a spell sceptre for more sweet sweet dps instead.
Passive tree and levelling image updated for 3.4
Everything else is just as chunky, viable and fun!
***********************************
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
Last edited by Cellstorm on Sep 3, 2018, 7:28:39 AM
Why are you using Incinerate and not using scorching ray ?
I've not played Chieftain much at all and only then as a totem build so I think i'll start Delve with this and see how it goes - looks like a lot of fun. Can you explain the double desecrate - is it because it has 3 (i think) charges and so running two makes sure it's always up?
I got this build from your stream and played it during the Incursion Event. It was a LOT of fun and I could see BV being a good boss swap.

Vaal Impurity of fire and Vaal Righteous fire would be amazing on this build together if you can find the itemization needed to add them.
"
crunchyspider wrote:
I've not played Chieftain much at all and only then as a totem build so I think i'll start Delve with this and see how it goes - looks like a lot of fun. Can you explain the double desecrate - is it because it has 3 (i think) charges and so running two makes sure it's always up?


One desecrate is self cast and the other is on a spell totem, to be honest the totem is very very rarely needed but not bad to drop in a corner for extra corpses in some situations.

Also, please post here how it get's on for you in delves, as i'm very curious as to how this will play/feel down in the depths!
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
Last edited by Cellstorm on Aug 31, 2018, 2:12:25 PM
"
M0GUL wrote:
Why are you using Incinerate and not using scorching ray ?


Very early in the build design and testing I experimented with scorching ray, both as my self cast channelling skill and also as a debuffing skill on the spell totem. Neither felt as good to me as incinerating did, but you could certainly swap it out and see which you prefer.
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
"
Trespeon wrote:
I got this build from your stream and played it during the Incursion Event. It was a LOT of fun and I could see BV being a good boss swap.

Vaal Impurity of fire and Vaal Righteous fire would be amazing on this build together if you can find the itemization needed to add them.


Shaper was killed today with the BV swap, it felt pretty smooth too.

I think you are totally right about the VRF, I have a bit of a 'dream gear PoB' i'm putting together where I use a pseudo 5link RF as a helmet. It really needs top tier GG gear though, nothing i'm likely to get in SSF without so very focused effort.

If I ever get it working in game i'll be sure to check the VRF. In fact I think VRF may work right now with how good the regen and leech feels, I would have to do some testing to be sure.
I stream daily at twitch.tv/CellTank
Last edited by Cellstorm on Aug 31, 2018, 2:13:42 PM

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