[3.19] Phemetos' Maw of Mischief Tri-Ailment / Chaos Ignite Golems | Budget Friendly Mapper/Bosser!

[Introduction]

Hey guys this is my first written guide so go easy on me please. I've been a minions build player for...ever really and I typically followed other peoples builds, but recently in PoE i've been branching out to do my own builds and what not. Most fail for sure, Zombie Bomber was not a thing I could get going. However! After that failed, I decided to give Deaths Wish another chance, since my main issue with Zombies was summoning them, and Maw of Mischief + Elementalist has been a janky thing in the past. Thanks to the new ignite changes and the Death Wish buff in 3.17, its actually felt REALLY good to play! So I decided to write this up to share it a bit. I'm still a fairly casual PoE player, so most of these insane budget builds won't really work out for me, so I hope this build can help some more casual players like myself.

The build is super easy to pilot. You just setup your golems, turn on your auras, then run around and hold Death Wish....thats basically it. You can have Molten SHell or Withering Step on Left click, and the other on another button, and just hold em down. It's simple, cheap, and EFFECTIVE. please take a look


3.20
Its dead, Im sure it is. All the jewels are going to be impossible to find. They were already hit hard with the nerfs to drop rates. lul

3.19 Patch Notes!
The hit to spell suppression and Melding of the flesh hurt our defenses for sure. Aegis Aurora being super expensive didn't help this build either. Then of course drops got wrecked so farming the div cards for this is not any fun anymore, so I wouldn't recommend it as a league starter. Its still fairly cheap to get going, but league starting is a terrible idea.

I leveled as SRS elementalist (yeah really) until I could get Maw and start the popping.



3.19 Dev Manifesto
So far not too many changes or nerfs to the build tbh. the loss of minion life by default is really going to suck, and I don't want to jump to any conclusions since we don't have patch notes yet, but the build should still function, better at league start w/ SRS im sure, but i'm concerned how much gearing we're going to be expected to dedicate towards minion life rolls on stuff... also the aura res and nerfs are really going to hurt our defences

3.18 Update 3? Hey guys, I found a cortex and ran the Feared, so i've pretty much finished everything besides Uber Bosses. Would love to grind for a mageblood and get this build Uber-Ready, but my father had a stroke so I've been taking care of him, probably won't be able to play much more this league, sorry =/.

Still had a lot of fun with this build, proud of it, and want to continue to improve it as much as I can in the coming leagues.

3.18 Update: This build as now being homogenized as it can be build very differently with the same core setup. Last league in 3.17 I was pure chaos ignites, but in 3.18 we're using tri-ailment ignite w/ Shocks and Chills, with Chaos Ignite Swap for mapping. Its very versatile. So I'm keeping the 3.17 base guide and adding the 3.18 changes to it to give you an idea of how much different the same build can be...built.

3.18 Changes
Spoiler

With recombiners being a thing, spell suppression armor gear is pretty easily obtainable to really boost our defenses. So we went that route instead of Skin of the Lords for more golem Damage. This may not be the case next league as I doubt recombiners are going Core, at least in this state.

Call of the Void is added to the Ring Rotation so we can swap between a few rings for bossing and mapping.


__________________________________________________

Videos

Video Showcase -

3.19 Update: https://youtu.be/r-QzXnDL_Xs
3.18 Guide and Explanation: https://youtu.be/aU5Dhzj4YOU

3.17 explaining how it functions.
https://youtu.be/fpELYXYTGeY

3.18 Week 1 Update: https://youtu.be/KkdsYyfby-Q

3.18 Mapping Showcase: https://youtu.be/_5UInO9LtqM

3.18 Bossing Showcase: https://youtu.be/8r8yQ4wN3P0

3.18 The Twisted/Cortex/The Feared https://youtu.be/Ip5_apHsFfk

Path of Building

PoB - 3.18 https://pastebin.com/KrDhSmeH
3.17https://pastebin.com/cMAsnd60

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Build Overview
Spoiler
The build doesn't really have anything to boast, but heres the general stats:

DPS - and how to calc
Spoiler
So we can actually check our damage in PoB by using the "enemy Corpse HP" section in the configuration tab. just set that to your golems HP and it will automatically take 19% of that to add to your Death Wish skill.

Currently in 3.18 I'm sitting around 14-19m Sirus DPS w/ ~10 minions detonated. fairly juicy.




Defense -
4.5k HP
500 ES
75/75 Block/Spell Block
100% Spell Suppression
100% Elemental Ailment Avoidance
15k Armor (Unflasked)
300-500 ES on Block
600 Life Regen/Sec
75/80/75/ Resistances (overcapped to ~120)
6k-10k Molten Shell (depending if flasks are used)
2400 Elemental Aegis Bubble (if you opt for that over exposure)

Map Clear Speed - Decent
- Movement speed isn't high with this build, even with Withering Step Active, and you have to stop to channel Death wish periodically. Thankfully the explosions clear entire packs and even screens if the density is high enough. This build REALLY wants more monster density.

Boss Clear Speed - Great!
- Watch the video, super unoptimized, but this thing OBLITERATES bosses. Boosted Despair, Wither, and Blackflame Ignites MELTS bosses. I can't accurately describe it, but with the small amount of investment required, this thing can nuke bosses in NO TIME

Budget Friendly - VERY!
- Thankfully everything in this build is rather cheap. Aegis Aurora is the most expensive Item, and its not even mandatory to be honest. Golem Jewels are basically free now, like 5-10c each.

Starting the build is cheap. 50c is pretty much all you need to start, but you can scale this up infinitely. Think I'm about 40ex into the 3.18 build.

SSF Friendly - YES!
- Surprisngly, you can farm all the golem cards in Grotto map, it drops like all the golem div cards, so level 21 golems, primordial jewels, corrupted primordial jewels, its all there, just farm Grotto. Everything else is essentially replaceable. You can even use a magna eclipse shield which is easily farmable due to Kirac Missions and how often the Twilight Temple Div cards drop in Moon Temple/Temple.

HC Friendly - Ehhhhh
- I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm also not a HC player. im sure you can make it work with Divine flesh, but I think thats asking a lot. Not sure whats required to be "HC Viable", and Its not liek this build dies a lot, its relatively tanky, but not "I wont ever die" tanky.


Bandits, Ascendency, Leveling
Spoiler

Bandits - Kill All
Ascendancy - Couple Options actually.
Setup 1. Liege of the Primordial - Shaper of Flames - Shaper of Storms - Bastion of Elements

This setup is for Aegis Auora and Chaos Ignites. I like the extra defense of Bastion of Elements, since it also provides reflect immunity.

Setup 2. Liege of the Primordial - Shaper of Flames - Shaper of Storms - Mastermind of Discord

You can swap out of Bastion if you don't need it, and get extra exposure with Mastermind. The fire exposure helps even if you're chaos ignite with blackflame, as your initial hit which is still fire will need to get calculated first, and the ignite will be determined based on that, then THAT damage becomes chaos.

Setup 3. Liege of the Primordial - Shaper of Flames - Mastermind of Discord - Heart of Destruction

You can get rid of shaper of storms too if you don't care about the shock. Heart of Destruction provides better clear speed with the added AOE, and good bossing damage with the 30% More multiplier, however I feel the shock with Breath of Lightning is better damage for bossing as you can easily hit 30-50% shocks


Leveling -

Act 1 - to Maps

Main priority is to get a +1 Fire skills wand, 2 if you can. Either check merchants or make your own with 40% quality worth of gems + a wand.

Fire skills will help scale you REALLY fast and will work with either leveling method.

Leveling Skills -

Burning Legion Route: SRS - Infernal Legion - Minion Damage - Added Fire Damage
Act 4 - SRS - Infernal Legion - Minion Damage - Unleash
5th Link - SRS - infernal Legion - Minion Damage - Unleash - Burning Damage/Ele Focus

Fireball Route: Fireball - Arcane Surge - LMP - Elemental Proliferation
(You can go Fireball leveling by picking up Fire damage/Dot Multi nodes instead of the Minion nodes along the way.
Act 4 - Fireball - LMP - Ignite Proliferation - Combustion
(Put Arcane surge on Flame Dash)
5th Link - Fireball - LMP - Ignite Proliferation - Combustion - Burning Damage

Fireball Tree at 72 looks messed up, but thats intentional so you can backtrack points out of cast speed and fire damage and go back to the normal route. it will work though, trust me.

You can also use Detonate Dead ignite as it shares most of the same pathing as ignite Fireball and our golem tree, but its obviously really strong, at least for now while the spectres are bugged.

Both Fireball and SRS can carry you all the way to maps and they require very little help. If you plan on going more SRS/Infernal Legion, you should also pick up Zombies and Spectres for added beef and clear.
For Fireball, Just focus on getting your defenses taken care of once you get your fireball linked and good to go.


Support skills to grab along the way -

Spell Echo/Unleash for Fireball or SRS if you get 5 Links
(You can swap added fire damage for Spell Echo on SRS)

Flammability
Flame Dash
Determination
Defiance Banner
Skitterbots
Purity of elements

Stone Golem
Minion Life
herald of Purity
(Grab these and and extra pair to put in weapon swap and level those while you're playing)

The Swap

Since we cant use Maw of Mischief until 73, we pretty much have to get to maps before we can ACTUALLY play the build. So i'd recommend not swapping over until you hit 73.
At that point you can easily take off the minion nodes, and tack onto the fire damage/dot multi/burning nodes.
We grabbed the Cluster nodes just so you can put in primordial jewels and such, and then when you act ually get clusters you can branch off and use those.

If you already have blackflame and plan to swap immediately to that, make sure you have despair leveling up with flammability.


Gem Links
Spoiler

Core Setup
Death Wish + Inspiration + Burning Damage + Unbound Ailments + Cruelty
Stone Golem + Empower + Minion Life (+Enhance w/ 6l Chest or Ashes of the Stars)

Utility Setup
Arcanist Brand + Flammability (Or Despair w/ Chaos Ignites) + Flame Surge


Auras
Enlighten + Malevolence + Tempest Shield + Determination
Defiance Banner on the side

Other random things

Skeletons to drop before bosses
Convocation to summon minions
Flame Dash to Flame Dash
Molten Shell
Anomalous Withering Step if you're using Blackflame




The Gear 3.18
Spoiler



The Gear 3.17
Spoiler


Gear Explanation
Spoiler
Helmet -
Obviously we're going to be using Maw of Mischief
since this build revolves around Death Wish.
Links: Burning Damage - Inspiration - Cruelty - Unbound Ailments
Obviously we can use the awakened versions of Unbound and Burning damage, but I'm trying to keep this on a budget. All this is to scale the ignite damage, we don't really care too much about the initial fire hit since we're scaling minion life for that.

You can also run Infused channeling instead of inspiration but inspiration fulfils 2 roles. First is that it lowers the mana cost from 13/stage to 9/stage which is bonkers, and pretty much solves all my mana issues. It also provides us with some crit so we can proc Elemental Overload.

Helm enchant isn't super mandatory, You can use Stone Golem buff for more life regen, or Herald of Purity Reservation if you want to put Empower/Minion Life/Enhance on your sentinel.

Body Armor -


Links - Empower - Stone Golem - Enhance - Anomalous Withering Step - Minion Life - Despair

3.18 I managed to get a +1 Aegis so we're going for more defenses this time around. We have a spell suppression and elemental ailment avoidance chest. We need to avoid chills due to Call of the Void, but you can also run Purity of Elements as well.

In 3.17 We're using a skin of the lords because its cheap, and the extra +2 skills boosts empower AND enhance which greatly increase the life of stone golems as we're sitting on level 29 stone golems right now with like 60+ quality. The keystone isn't super important, Elemental Overload is saving us 1 passive, but I had one with Call to Arms as well for instant enduring cries and that works too. Honestly anything or nothing both work. We also like the 100% global defense modifier to boost Determination and Discipline. If you want to drop malevolence to fit in grace, even better.

You dont NEED this chest, and honestly I tinkered with the idea of getting a suppression and chaos res chest so I could run Divine Flesh, and That would also work.

You can also use a Brass Dome as the extra resistance cap and crit immunity is bonkers strong defensively. and since you're running determination you just get a fat amount of bonus armor on top. Realistically you can use any armor you want, but something corrupted with +1 gems would be perfect.

The Links are self explanatory. the core is a 4 Link which is ALL YOU NEED. Stone Golems, Minion Life, Empower, and Enhance. This is just scaling Stone golem HP as much as possible since level and quality are what do it. Despair and Withering step are nice for support here but not required. Extra levels and quality makes despair super juicy, giving 66% more dot damage taken, and Withering step grants 14 Wither on use, which will NOT fade on enemies we ignite.

We don't use Herald of purity here because Empower and Enhance increase the reservation cost, which is...a little too much for the build, unless you get a herald of purity helm enchant.

Alternatives
Brass Dome, Skin of the Loyal, or Generic Rare Chest w/ +1 spells Corrupt

Weapons -


Links - UTILITY! Skeletons - Spell Echo | Flame Dash | Convoke - Molten Shell - Increased Duration

You have a lot of choice for weapons. You can use The Scourge claw since minion damage is our damage, you can use a +2 minion wand since again minion damage is our damage, and minion life is damage. You can also use a Fire Scepter with burn damage, fire skills, dot multi, whatever. You have PLENTY of options. Just find something that fits your budget, but the affixes you want to look for are:

+1 All Phys Spells, +1 all Spells, Fire Dot Multi, Dot Multi, Burning Damage, Minion Damage, Minion Life.

For the Shield, Aegis Aurora is basically best in slot, as it lets us heal off the blocks from glancing blows. Without Aegis, I wouldn't bother running glancing blows. A Life on block shield will also work though, so if you can get a spell suppression + Life on block shield, then you should be fine with glancing blows. This shield doesn't really do much else for us anyway.

Magna Eclipse can work too, especially if you can get one corrupted for +2 duration gems, so Herald of Purity gets a fat +4 Levels on the shield.

Alternatives
The Scourge, Any Rare weap with 3 of the mentioned affixes
Magna Eclipse, any of the 2 halves of Magna, Rare Shield w/ Life on Block + either Suppression or Mana reseration efficiency

Gloves, Belt, Boots -



Links -
Tempest Shield - Discipline - Malevolence - Enlighten
Determination - Defiance Banner - Herald of Purity - Enlighten

Go crazy, standard rares for Life, Resistances, and Stat fixes. You will need to fix dex and strength most likely. You can get a lot of resistances from the passive tree, and don't forget that the elemental mastery can give +15 all res which is GREAT for 1 point if you need it.

The main purpose is to make sure you can fit your auras with enlightens here. I know enlightens are kind of expensive right now, so if you can't quite afford them, you can get rid of some minor auras like Malevolence and you'll be fine.

Rings, Amulet -



Not much wiggle room here to be honest. Ashes of the Stars is kind of a key point to this build. the extra Quality is huge for Stone Golem's HP, and helps Despair and Withering Step apply more chaos damage. If you can't afford an Ashes of the Stars since they're the new chase Item, an amulet w/ +1 phys and some Dot multi is honestly about as good, plus you can get more attributes on it.

Blackflame is not exactly mandatory but we are leaning towards the chaos with despair curse and withering step. You can swap this for Polaric Devastation to get the extra fire dot multi, and the Covered In Ash debuff, which is a free 20% MORE damage multiplier essentially. However if you go that route you need to change despair to Flammability and Withering Step needs to be Flame Surge. Also you should then change the passives to get Mastermind of DIscord for the extra fire exposure.

Same for Call of the Void. Its not mandatory but its great for bossing, and we can easily swap between Blackflame and Call of the Void for mapping and bossing without needing to change anything else. Chaos Ignites are better for clear since Arch Nemesis modifiers have a lot of fire resistances, but much fewer chaos resistance monsters. and of course Call of the Void because bosses are slow, and deal less damage.

Bereks Respite is absolutely mandatory. The Ignite Proliferation support jewel and eldritch implicit aint got shit on Bereks Respite for clearing. Technically you could take this off for bossing too... but thats a lot of gear swapping lol.

Alternatives
Polaric Devastation, Rare Rings to fix attributes.

RING SWAP: For bossing you can change out Bereks Respite for Blackflame or Call of the Void to deal chaos damage or reduce enemy damage. We don't need to chain ignites on bosses obviously.

For Mapping you can take off the rare ring and use blackflame + Bereks respite for chaos ignite chains, which is what the build was originally based on.

Jewels -


Golem build, we need anima stone for the free +1 golem. 3 Primordial Mights are not necessary, but they do provide us with more damage as golems that revive themselves do count as being summoned, so thats a nice damage buff, plus they get more HP too. But its a lot of jewel sockets to invest I know.

Thread of Hope lets us grab a ton of useful notables on the passive, socketed right in above the witch starting area. You don't NEED breath of Lightning, but the 50% increased shock effect is really nice for bossing, since we have the option to always shock on hits too, and the shocks will spread with bereks anyway.

Clusters jewels are not mandatory by any means. Its just easier to get more jewel slots that way, but you can do without. Primordial Bond is the only notable you'd want there, and if you're going for it you need to make sure its the TOP affix. I'm also running a Mana reservation small cluster, which isn't technically required, I just have mana issues otherwise, havent fixed that yet. If I could i'd trade that our for a chaos resistance cluster so I could swap to Divine Flesh.

Red Nightmare is also not super mandatory, but slotted by Glancing blows lets us get a free block chance and endurance charge on kill, so thats nice.

Watchers Eye for Malevolence is good, but also not required. Mine grants bleed immunity because I HATE bleed, and I have 50 chaos res, but if you can get poison immunity that works too. also if you don't have a watchers eye you can just drop malevolence all together so you can fit in Grace



__________________________________________________

To Do -
PoB Tree for leveling
Alternate setup for Fire Ignites instead of Chaos Ignites

Thanks for taking the time to read this. its not exactly an "original build" but its something I haven't seen a guide on, and I had a lot of fun playing it this league, especially after my other minion bomb build failures lol.

If you want you can check out my Youtube or Twitch. Not a PoE Streamer all the time, just some of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/Phemeto
https://www.twitch.tv/phemeto

-Phem
Last edited by Phemeto on Nov 14, 2022, 5:41:19 PM
Last bumped on Jan 19, 2023, 11:07:10 PM
Beep save
Thanks, lookin' very good for a first build guide! Keep it up!
I am very interested in some leveling trees ;) And perhaps some small pointers when you can transition into the 'end-game build' when leveling?
Hi, I'm curious, what are the skeletons for? They're in the 'utility' link but I have no idea what help they're actually giving. I have a similar build leveling based on this one. I have skeletons slotted in but never really have an opportunity to use them (too busy using Death Wish, moving or casting curse).
I mentioned it in my video, but the skeletons are fodder. Death wish scales it's base damag and the ailment damage off of "total affected minions" to a max of 13. So 5 golems and 8 skeletons off echo just so I can grab as many minions as possible for the initial big booms
So far no issues with the build. The only really expensive items will end up being the ashes of the stars and enlighten gems. I dropped malevolence as I don't have the enlightens and I'm clearing everything no issue.

It's a bit slow on mapping depending on the map, but I'm a slow player anyways so it doesn't bother me.

A decent blight mapper also.

Boss damage is great.

I put in a wand with trigger socketed spell when I use a skill for summon skeletons and despair. Its a small mapping QOL boost - flesh offering seems to be a good trigger on this as it gives minions movement speed to get around faster.
Last edited by thedukey on Feb 28, 2022, 10:23:05 AM
The mapping gets faster with more juice tbh as the ignites chain infinitely, but yeah its still not really the fastest mapper. I also play kind of slow, not some super meta PoE player. Just found this super cruisy for my level of play
It's a fantastic build, I'm literally lazy enough to only be using three flasks and a crappy belt at the moment, and still clearing all fights without major issue.

I can see this being faster with ignite chains, will try it out on some juiced up maps!
I am trying this build in softcore and manage to reach my first lv 90 in this league, LOL.
I run the build without malevolence and go Grace. And then pickup Skin of the Lords with Ghost Dance. And it feels so great.
All hit can not kill me, but the only problem is DoT especially from Ignite Crit. When Mapping it is no problem since flask will be sufficient. Boss that can do crit ignite is a problem.
I will try to get helmet with grace/determination enchant and slip Vitality in, it could be the problem solver.
Also from here on I'll get the cluster jewel to ramp up the damage.
build looks really fun

any suggestions about leveling it ?

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