[3.6] LL RF Scorching Ray Guardian – A Balance of Defense + Offense

This is an updated guide for the Low Life Righteous Fire Guardian build based originally on AHFACK build guide.

The original guide was prior to 3.0 and was intended for Standard but with new Shaper and Elder items and Delve fossils the build has improved drastically for leagues. This build can do all the end-game bosses without much effort (AFK MODE!) and delves comfortably at 300+. This guide will explain what items to look for, how to craft them, and the best item possibilities.

This is my first ever guide and the reason I am creating this is because the other variants of LLRF either are mana guardians or designed for standard. I have been playing and improving this build variant since bestiary league and every league has only made it better, so I thought I’d share!

DISCLAMER:This build is not intended for league starting and can be very costly! I would estimate the starting cost to be at least 20 exalts and can easily climb to over 100+ Exalts.


This guide is a work in progress and will be updated with more info/videos soon!

OVERVIEW


What Can This Build Do?

This build can pretty much face tank all the game content with ease.

When mapping you want to avoid doing:
No Regeneration
Reduced Regeneration
Elemental Weakness (Doable without curse removal but is deadly)
Reduced Maximum Resistances (Doable but is deadly)

When in delves or nexus the deadliest mod would be the elemental penetration but is doable.

See videos of End Game Content.


Early League

This build requires items from end game which do not become available until a week or so into the league.

The item you want to acquire first is the elder hubris helmet with an enchant that reduces any of our aura reservations or increases RF damage. This can be done by buying the helmet and using enchanting fossils, running lab, or just being patient for someone to post it for trade.

Early in the league the jewels are pretty cheap since no one is running LLRF.

The titanium shield for i86+ elder is pretty rare and could be expensive but you only need i80+ elder shield for +2 max fire res.


What is the difference of this build compared to other RF builds?

Coming Soon!

(Comparing Mana Guardian)
(Comparing Armor Guardian)
(Comparing Life RF)



STATS




GEAR








VIDEOS


Uber Elder Deathless - https://youtu.be/a2zdTpx8jTE

Uber Eradicator - https://youtu.be/r9BAqTNn19c
Uber Purifier - https://youtu.be/2pdnI7S7fjk
Uber Constrictor - https://youtu.be/KZvK_9s7P_Y
Uber Enslaver (Flaskless) - https://youtu.be/TWbdh-SrIqU

More Videos of Tankness Coming Soon!



GEAR


The only two REQUIRED unique items for this build are Presence of Chayula and Shavronne’s Wrappings. Really, the only required item is Shavronne’s Wrappings because of Chaos Damage Does Not Bypass Energy Shield but Chayula gives us a nice boost to ES, Stun Immunity, and Chaos Resistance.

Helmet

The helmet is a key piece of the entire build.
The helmet needs to be elder based ILVL 83+ ideally a Hubris Circlet.

Enchants:
It needs to have the 20% reduced mana enchant for one of the following auras: Vitality, Purity of Fire, Purity of Ice or Purity of Lightning.
Or the 40% Increased Righteous Fire Damage


It needs to have Essence of Horror and Burning/Concentrated Effect.

Starting Helmet would be Essence of Horror with Concentrated Effect or Burning on it. This gives us a 6 linked Righteous Fire.

Best Helmet would have Essence of Horror with Concentrated Effect and Burning Damage on it with high energy shield.

Having the Burning Damage Suffix is much better than having the gem. The gem only gives up to 66% (21/23) but T3 suffix gives a minimum of 70% up to 89% with 20-35% of it being global (Boosting Scorching Ray).




Shield

The shield is another key piece of the build.
The shield needs to be Elder based ILVL 80+ and ideally Titanium Spirit Shield.
You want +2 Maximum Fire Resistance with Highest Energy Shield possible.

Starting shield can be simply +2 Maximum Fire Resistance with multi mod crafted.

Synthesis added +3 Maximum Fire Resistance and +2 to all maximum resistances as implicit modifiers. This allows you to get much more Energy Shield on the shield since you do not have to roll the +2 Prefix.

The synthesis +2 to all Maximum Resistance implicit is rare (25% chance) and the +3 to Maximum Fire Resistance is also rare (50% chance) however I would prioritize the +2 to all maximum resistance over the +3 Max Fire.




Belt

The belt is another key piece of the build. It gives a large amount of Energy Shield but more importantly increases our Energy Shield Recovery Rate, which increases all related recovery values including regeneration.

The belt needs to be Shaper based ILVL 75+ and ideally Crystal Belt.

You want T1 Energy Shield Recovery Rate, but should also have Increased Energy Shield or Resistances.

Starting belt can simply be chain belt with T1 Recovery Rate and Some Flat ES or Maximum ES.

Best belt would be Crystal Belt with T1 Recovery Rate, T1 Flat ES, T1 Maximum ES, and Delve Suffix Increased Energy Shield from Body Armour.




Gloves

The gloves should simply be maximum energy shield with resistances or dexterity.

Ideally, you want Sorceress Gloves and Enchant Light when you take a critical strike. The enchant can be any level since we only want it for the consecrated ground.

Synthesis also added +1 to Maximum Fire Resistance as an implicit. Ideally, Flat Energy Shield with Maximum Fire Resistance would be the best implicit modifiers.




Rings

The rings are important because they can provide Damage, ES, Resistances, and Dexterity.

One of your rings will need to be a Unset Ring with at least +2 to socketed gems for your Purity of Fire.
If you have +2 then you will need Level 21 Purity of Fire, +3 works with Level 20.
You can replace this if you have a corrupted Presence of Chayula with Level 23 Purity of Fire.

The other ring should be crafted with Dense Fossils to get the Delve Suffix Increased Energy Shield from Body Armour. This modifier gives us flat energy shield so it is very nice and scales great with our build.

Ideally, you want to use Opal Ring for the 25% Elemental Damage boost.

Getting the delve suffix with flat T1 ES and Intellect is the biggest boost to Energy Shield but you should prioritize getting stats and resistances.




Weapon

The weapon simply provides us with increased damage.
I personally use Dreadbeak, which provides 100% damage, onslaught, and attack speed for shield charging.
Another great option is Doryani's Catalyst, which can provide a little more damage than Dreadbeak.
The best in slot item would be a Rare Void Sceptre, which can give over 200%+ Damage.




Boots

There are a few options here depending on your Dexterity and Stats.
Personally, I use Sin Trek because it provides Dexterity, Intellect, Movement Speed, and High Energy Shield.

Crafted Sorceress Boots would also be great if you can fill in the dexterity elsewhere.

The enchant should be the regenerate life/mana if hit recently.

Synthesis has added +1 Maximum Fire Resistance as an implicit.
Synthesis also added Onslaught as an implicit which is very nice to have.




Jewels


Rare Jewels

The jewels are a huge part of the build because they provide Maximum Energy Shield and Damage.

Ideally you want Maximum Energy Shield with Burning Damage and Fire Damage.

You can substitute Burning Damage with: Area Damage, Damage Over Time, or Increased Damage.

Fourth Stats should be more damage, resistances, or Dexterity/Intellect.




Unique Jewels

Energy from Within - provides a big boost to Energy Shield.

Watcher Eye – This is very important because it provides a huge boost to Regeneration.

You want Discipline % ES Regeneration, Increased ES Recovery Rate or Life Regenerated from Vitality.

Best in slot would be % ES Regeneration, ES Recovery Rate.

And if you are lucky/rich the 3rd stat would be Clarity Increased Max ES % based on Mana.

Recovery Rate scales best for our build and the ES Regeneration from Discipline scales with our maximum ES so it is very good when we are well geared. The vitality life regenerated helps a lot but is worst then the other 2 mods. You can check your net life regeneration in POB.









CRAFTING


Helmet

You want to start out with a Hubris Circlet that is ILVL 82+ and ELDER BASE.
Recommended to have 30%+ Quality.
Recommended to have one of the Enchants (Reduced Mana Aura or RF Damage).

You need to use Essence of Horror on the helmet. The average attempts is around 20+ before getting something usable. (I've gone 40+ attempts without anything!)

You want either Burning Damage or Concentrated Effect.
Concentrated Effect is good but you cannot Master Craft, meaning you are stuck with what you get.

Burning Damage is much better because it allows you to swap AOE and CONC gems and if you have an open prefix you can Master Craft.
Master Crafting you will wipe the prefixes and try to hit High Energy Shield or Concentrated Effect.




Shield

You want to start out with a Titanium Spirit Shield that is ILVL+ 80 and ELDER BASE.
Recommended to have 30% Quality.
Recommended to have ILVL 86 for T1 ES %.

The quickest and cheapest way to obtain a decent shield is to use Alterations.

You will need Alteration, Regal, Scour, and Annulment Orbs.

The goal is to roll +2 maximum fire resistance, hopefully without a suffix.

However, if it does have a suffix, then you should judge whether it will be worth using a regal and annulment orbs on. I personally skip any bad suffix mod and only use augment orbs on high resistance suffixes.

So, to craft you will start using alterations on the shield. Do not waste augments on suffixes that are bad. Simply spam alterations until you get +2 maximum fire resistance. This may take a few hundred alterations before even seeing it. Once you get it, then you must decide if you want to regal and try to annul the mods off.

If successful then you need to craft multimod (2 exalts)
Increased Energy Shield
Increased energy shield %
0.7% - 1% Life Regeneration or 5% Reduced DOT
The last mod can be a resistance or an attribute + quality
The result will give you a 200-300 ES Shield which is good for starting out.


The other option for crafting is to use Fossils from Delve.

You will need to use Dense + Scorched.

I personally did over 1000+ attempts on shields and only got 2 shields that were over 340+ ES. (In Betrayal I've tried over 400 times without success)

This can be very expensive and time consuming but is the only way to get the best possible shield.




Gloves

You want to start out with Sorceress Gloves that are ILVL 84+.
Recommended to have 30% Quality.

You are simply going to use Dense Fossils until you hit something viable. This can take a lot of attempts before getting something. You ideally want Triple T1 Prefixes with the Delve Suffix and an open suffix.




Belt

You want to start out with Crystal Belt that is ILVL+ 75 and SHAPER BASED.

You will use Dense Fossils.

You want Recovery Rate, Maximum ES %, Increased ES, and ES from Body Armour. (4 mods, Yikes!)

You can also use Dense + Scorching to get the Increased Fire Damage suffix (20-30%).

There are not a lot of mods to compete with but getting all 4 mods that are T1 can become costly. You can easily craft a decent belt pretty quickly using just Dense Fossils.

If you have an open prefix and can't craft anything good then craft increased damage.

If you have an open suffix and do not need res or attributes then get the life regeneration during flask.





Rings

You want to start out with a Opal Ring that is ILVL+ 84.

You will use Dense Fossils.

You are looking for ES From Body Armour and Increased ES.

The other mods should be either Resistances or Stats depending on what you need.

You could use Dense + Prismatic in attempt to get the Increased Elemental Damage Suffix but will make getting the ES mods more difficult and can become costly.

Using an SHAPED Opal Ring that is ILVL 80+ can allow you to hit the Cold Damage to Spells/Attacks which helps with Elemental Equilibrium but is not necessary.

If you have an open prefix you could craft either increased damage or faster start of energy shield recharge.



Weapon


You want to start out with a Void Sceptre that is ILVL+ 84.
(Shaper and Elder bases have prefixes that could be useful but rolling against a lot of useless ones too)

You will use Prismatic Fossils.
You could add Aetheric Fossils to help reduce attack mods.
You could add Scorched Fossils to increase fire/burning mods.

You are looking for the Underground Prefix (Increased Elemental Damage 40-60%)


If you roll with 2 prefixes/3 suffixes then you could try to annul.
If you have 2 prefixes/1 suffix you could try Beast Crafting (add suffix/remove prefix)

If you have just the prefix and 2 suffixes then you will need to annul another suffix.

When you have 1 prefix/1 suffix you will need to craft on it:
Multimod, Prefixes Cannot Be Changed, and Any Prefix
This will prevent the item turning Magical but costs 4 exalts to clear then another 2 exalts to multimod again.

The crafted Sceptre will have a range of 138% to 170% Fire Damage, 20-30% DOT, and an open suffix for Stats/Res.









POB

https://pastebin.com/v0aMMwr2




LEVELING

I DO NOT recommend leveling as righteous fire!

The past leagues I usually level as sunder/arc totems then respec when I get level 80.

The build will not feel good until low level 90s and each point after 90 is pretty powerful.


FAQ
Coming Soon!


Trickster Variant

The trickster variant uses the exact same gear and has slightly different tree. Overall, it is less defensive then the guardian with 15% less Maximum Energy Shield and about 30%+ less net regeneration but the damage is equivalent if not better, and it is faster.

I did all four uber guardians and uber elder deathless at level 93 which was not bad with great gear but you can defiantly feel it is more vulnerable.
Level 93 POE Tree

I copied this variant off of poe.ninja.
POB Link


Last edited by herbfunk on May 19, 2019, 3:38:33 AM
Last bumped on May 18, 2019, 6:06:11 PM
Hope you continue working on this. I would consider a double 35% aura blood magic setup and drop that clarity. With that you basically woudnt need the enchantment as far as im aware, right ?
Nice to see a league-focused update to the classic AHFACK guide. Keen to read the "What is the difference of this build compared to other RF builds?" section when it's done! You've also mentioned elsewhere running Aspect of the Spider over Vitality when mapping - how much of a difference does it make? Have you experimented with using Storm Brand over Orb of Storms to proc EO/EE?
Last edited by Haasts on Feb 24, 2019, 1:43:26 AM
"
NoBotGamer wrote:
Hope you continue working on this. I would consider a double 35% aura blood magic setup and drop that clarity. With that you basically woudnt need the enchantment as far as im aware, right ?


Correct, you can switch the auras around if you do not have the enchantment. The reason we use Discipline with blood magic is so that we can link it with Empower which gives us 500+ ES boost. Clarity helps us sustain casting scorching ray without interruptions.

Linking the purities to blood magic would require level 4 enlighten and would free up 20%+ mana reservation which could be used for Clarity/Aspects.



"
Haasts wrote:
Nice to see a league-focused update to the classic AHFACK guide. Keen to read the "What is the difference of this build compared to other RF builds?" section when it's done! You've also mentioned elsewhere running Aspect of the Spider over Vitality when mapping - how much of a difference does it make? Have you experimented with using Storm Brand over Orb of Storms to proc EO/EE?


The differences are pretty much expected.. but I will do a comparison of numbers focusing on Damage/Regeneration/Resistances and update soon. Summary: This build is highest DPS, Jugg is Tankiest but lowest DPS, and the guardians are less regeneration/damage but higher maximum ES and physical reduction.

Running aspect of the spider over vitality can feel a little dangerous at times since it drops over 35% of our regeneration and is only possible if you do not use the vitality watcher's eye. I switched back to vitality whenever I was doing bosses or syndicates.

I did mess with Storm Brand a little bit and did not like it very much but it proced EO fine and if you do not mind casting it, it works just as good as orb of storms.
Keep ur content up.This build looks promising +1 rep guide.Probably my next league boss killer build :D.
How will this look after the changes to ES? Leech does not affect it I think, I need to scout the tree for regen changes. I hope you keep it updated OP!
Shavronne wrapped Kaom's waist,
with her gilded purple boots.
"You want my sockets?"
3.6 Update - Killed Uber Elder Deathless at level 93.

Took about 2 weeks to gather all the gear. Elder Hubris helmets with any enchants seem to be very rare and spending 100+ enchanted fossils only got me one usable enchant!

Synthesis has introduced a lot of really good implicit values on items. Shields, gloves, and boots can all get Maximum Resistance but it appears to be very rare. I managed to get a shield for a lot of currency but it's worth it! Getting high energy shield is much easier with the implicit for flat energy but again can be very expensive.

Overall, I think I spent over 75+ exalts on all my gear..


My Gear





Path of Building Pastebin
Note: The POB shows lower Energy Shield values, my actual ES is 14.368. I think this has to be something with the ES from Body Armour not being calculated correctly.
Is Prism guardian shield simply not good enough?
Hey mate tnx for awesome build first of all! I really enjoy it,however there is one thing i can't understand which is how to increase NET life regen? (got 450 atm)
Last edited by _Rain__ on May 4, 2019, 11:09:34 PM
"
broseidon07 wrote:
Is Prism guardian shield simply not good enough?


The shield should increase your maximum fire resistance (+2%) and have as much ES on it as possible.


"
_Rain__ wrote:
Hey mate tnx for awesome build first of all! I really enjoy it,however there is one thing i can't understand which is how to increase NET life regen? (got 450 atm)


The net life regen value has many factors such as total ES, maximum fire resistance, total recovery rate, regeneration, and damage reductions but in terms of items the biggest single item that boosts the net life regen value is a double stat Watcher's Eye (Disc ES Recovery Rate/Disc ES Regen/Vitality Life Regen). Getting a Disc ES Recovery Rate + Regeneration Watcher's Eye will be a big boost to net life regen.

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