.2 Patch Smith of Kitava - Lore Dive and Thematics

I am excited for not Chieftain being ported over to PoE2. That being said, I love chieftain ascendancy in PoE1 and have found myself playing it more after the Tasalio and Valako updates in the rework. Having fire resistance be a viable means of capping all elemental resistances and having max fire cap all ele res instead is also just an underrated yet super powerful mechanic. Yes something like Melding of the flesh is technically "better" at the super high budget end because then your ascendancy can grant you other powerful character changes, but the fact that you get those upgrades on day 1 - 2 for essentially no currency invested is nothing to shrug at. I think it being free melding is powerful enough to warrant playing the class. This also applies in PoE2 where I find that most of the truly dangerous things that will kill my character are actually elemental damage, not physical damage. In addition, having a class that will give fire resistance, max fire resistance, a bad cloak of flame, and something else (either armour applies to chaos damage, increased strength, or life regen) will be plenty of power for anything I need to play in the end game. The one drawback in that scenario is that it will essentially be a coward's set up where you only choose defensive options, but that is fine by me.

The only thing I do not like about the class, but which might be super broken is the cast fire spell on hit skill. This is basically a free Mjolnier but for fire skills which sounds awesome. Except when you look at the attribute requirements for most fire skills and realize that it is going to be really hard to gear for it. It could be really broken because Mjolnier for lightning skills is insane when built around properly. Right now there is not a skill gem that really jumps out to me as being a relevant Fire spell skill to build around though.

Lore Dump below. I actually really like the class but think it needs a name change thematically.

The issues I have with the acsendancy have nothing to do with the power nodes on the tree - I think this class is really cool! My issue is purely with the naming of the class. I do not think it should be called the Smith of Kitava. Thematically I am not sold on it. There is one instance of a Disciple of Kitava (Utula the Smith in act 5 is the blacksmith in the hub, but after defeating Innocence he turns evil and you hunt him down later seeing that he is a fused hulk that will manifest forge weapons and do some fire related stuff - he is meant to be Karui be born and raised in Oriath so he is not 100% culturally karui, though i do not know how this impacts his storyline). In that one way I see how the Smith of Kitava is following suit in relationship to that one NPC. However, there is never really a time when fighting Kitava that we see Kitava use blacksmithing or weapons in a large way -that is only in the Utula fight. Kitava is the ravenous one. We learn more about Kitava in the environmental lore when collecting the Karui relics that compose Kitava's Torments (hence the quest name) in the reliquary (valako's jaw, hinekora's hair, and Tukohama's Tooth). Along with the torments we get stories about how Kitava essentially eats everything he comes in contact with and it was only the other karui chiefs/gods that were able to essentially vomit up what he had devoured before imprisoning him. So, with all of that being said, we actually know a lot about Kitava through act lore and we know a bit more about the Kitava tribe from trial of the ancestors, but in all of this we do not actually see a whole lot of imagery that would link Kitava to smithing outside of Utula. He is the "ravenous one" not the "smithing one". We do learn that Karui tribes do have some crafting or smithing culture from the unique boots Torchoak Step from PoE1 - it has the environmental lore of "Centuries ago, there existed a unique grove imbued with ancestral fire. As with all things, the Karui used its wood for war.". Okay - this is cool we learn that the Karui were obsessed with war (they were peaceful a long long time ago, but then Kaom showed up and changed that). So, much so that they found wood and their first instinct was to make armour that would make a weapon. The boots make totems have a retaliation or damage reflect mechanic. This is cool, but again does not really go along with the theme of the class. If it did, then the smith might focus on thorns damage (which is currently unplayable in the game), could focus on retaliation skills (magma barrier is actually really good), or could have some synergy with minions/animated weapons/totems (the class does have the animate weapon so that one node of the rest is on brand). However, the class just kind of feels like they slammed forge guard from Last Epoch together with Chieftain from PoE1. I do not get it. I would prefer they change the name because there is not enough about the ascendancy nodes that says yes this guy is kitava reborn or something. Not only that, we have Kitava's Teachings unique cluster jewel in PoE1 which allows us to allocate the unique keystone "Disciple of Kitava" (Every second, Consume a nearby Corpse to Recover 5% of Life and Mana 10% more Damage taken if you haven't Consumed a Corpse Recently [1]). I would be 100% okay with the naming methodology if this was a mandatory first node of the tree or if it was even on the tree, but this is the most Kitava oriented item (along with kitava's thirst, but not the point) in the entire game. I imagined that this ascendancy would focus on consuming corpses to gain buffs, would consume corpses to heal itself, be leech focused, or have skills specific to the Kitava tribe from trial of the ancestors, but it doesn't actually have anything specific to Kitava. It has something specific to Utula, which was a fanatic of Kitava but definitely not Kitava. maybe this is to indicate that the foundling is related to Utula or related to Lani or one of the other Karui survivors that fled Oriath? WHo knows because there does not seem to be enough reason for Smith and Kitava to go together to produce the Smith of Kitava. I am just a little lost is all.

There is definitely evidence for the Karui having smithing or crafting from a lore perspective, but most of the Kitavan lore is about cannibalism. So, I do not know how cannibalism and weapons of war come together to give us the Smith of Kitava, which is really just new and improved Tasalio and Valako from Chieftain Ascendancy PoE1. Like yes the body armour is cool, but I am assuming that 99% of all players who choose to play this class (which will probably not be many) will be taking those two nodes. Therefore, it may as well just be called "Chieftain of Kitava" instead of smith. Unless this is somehow saying that the other Karui ancestral gods have been assimilated by Kitava(like the nodes are called something else in PoE2, but they are de facto Tasalio Cleansing Water and Valako Storms Embrace from PoE1. I just do not know if that is significant). I would be happier if they changed the name or added some relevant component of regaining life through corpse consumption. Currently the huntress' Ritualist ascendancy actually has more Kitava themed components to it than this smith (consuming corpses to get minor headhunter is going to be broken, but why is that node on that ascendancy instead of this one? Thematically speaking - the devs can do whatever and I will still be happy to play the game).

Just food for thought. I am hyped for the new patch and am probably going to roll Smith, Ritualist, and/or Tactician. GL HF!