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Righteous Fire Chieftain Build Guide (POE Legion 3.7)

Righteous Fire Chieftain Build Guide

Righteous Fire is a bit of a unique build archetype in Path of Exile. The ability to simply walk up to enemies and have a ring of fire burn them to ash is a very casual playstyle in the sense of how easy it is. The challenge for this POE build comes from having to manage uptime on your Flasks and Endurance Charges and minmaxing the gear, which can actually be quite difficult for even experienced players at first. But once you develop a rhythm, Righteous Fire Chieftain becomes one of the strongest builds in Legion and POE 3.7 that isn’t pure melee.

Offensively, this POE build is pure Fire Damage. As such, there’s a few mechanics to be aware of. It causes a constant damage effect that affects both the player casting the skill and enemies within the radius. The problems with this build lie in this area though, as the more defensive your build, the less DPS it has. It’s still possible to kill bosses with this build, but taking on Red map bosses or Shaper/Elder and Guardians will be much more difficult until you have some rather expensive gear.

Defensively, with more than 10,000 Life at the top-end of gear, this is already a very strong build to play, even before the other layers are accounted for. Thanks to the increased Resistances above the typical 75% maximum, players are offered just that much more defense potential. The huge amount of Life Regeneration is our final layer, making this a very tanky build overall.

The more Fire Resistance a player has, the less Life Regeneration you need in terms of % of Life lost per second. With default 75% Fire Res, you need 22.6% or more Life Regen per second to stay alive, and that doesn’t account for damage from enemies. At just 80% Fire Res, the amount needed drops to 18.1% or more.

You’ll find all you will need to construct this build down below. The guide assumes that you’re going all-out and are maximizing every aspect, but you don’t have to go that far at all to reach a point where the build is enjoyable. Even in the low 90s with less-than-perfect gear, the build runs Maps and Delves just fine. And it’s a great choice as a league starter build for any POE player. If you are a brand new Path of Exile player, feel free to check out our various POE guides for noobs.

Build Pros

  • Great clear speed
  • Fun and fast
  • HC viable
  • Uber Lab farming capable

Build Cons

  • Not the best leveling build
  • Not the best for bosses
  • Managing Charges can be cumbersome

Passive Tree(s)

Here is the Endgame Passive Tree

Final POE Tree

Pantheon

Upgrade all of these.

Major God: Soul of Arakaali

Arakaali offers too much DoT reduction to pass up, and yes, that means RF deals less damage to us.

Soul of Lunaris offers great defensive options for mapping.

Minor God: Soul of Tukohama

The damage reduction is pretty good, shoring up one of your defensive gaps.  Abberath offers decent defensive help as well for fire damage.

Bandits

Oak offers more Life Regen and some Physical Damage reduction, use it.

Ascendancy skill points

Chieftain

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

  1. Tasalio, Cleansing Water
  2. Tawhoa, Forest’s Strength
  3. Valako Storm’s Embrace
  4. Ramako Sun’s Light

Assassin offers incredible bonuses to DPS through Crit Chance, as well as stable defensive and offensive options through Charge generation. The layering with our various gear options offers tons of flexibility in those areas as well.

Enchants

Helmet: (From Best to Worst)
40% increased Righteous Fire Damage
Righteous Fire grants 30% increased Spell Damage
12% increased Righteous Fire Area of Effect

Boots:
0.6% of Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if you’ve Killed Recently
Damage Penetrates x% of Enemy Elemental Resistances if you haven’t Killed Recently

Gloves:
Commandment of Light or Flames

You could also use these Corruptions on Gear:

Curse Enemies with Level (10–12) Elemental Weakness on Hit (Gloves)
(4–6)% Increased Maximum Life (Belt, Body Armour)

Leveling General Tips

Efficient Farm Locations:

Act 1: The Ledge

Act 2: The Fellshrine Ruins

Act 3: The Docks

Act 4: The Dried Lake

Act 5: The Chamber of Innocence

Act 6: The Ridge

Act 7: The Temple of Decay lv1-2

Act 8: The Harbour Bridge

Act 9: The Blood Aqueduct

Act 10: The Ossuary

Avoid these map mods:

* Players cannot Regenerate Life, Mana or Energy Shield

* Elemental Reflect

Be careful of these map mods:

* Monsters have #% increased Critical Strike Chance / +#% to Monster Critical Strike Multiplier
With high evasion, attack should almost never crit you. Spell on the other hand can still hit hard.

* Monsters fire 2 additional Projectiles
Scary mod on some bosses and monster types. Some monsters are still able to spam out too many projectiles to handle.

* Area contains two Unique Bosses
Your goal to survive this mode is a combo of extreme DPS and Life. The faster you can down the bosses, the less threat they pose.

* #% increased Monster Movement Speed / #% increased Monster Attack Speed / #% increased Monster Cast Speed
Some bosses are going to be too fast to hit effectively, meaning you’ll spend more time than you normally should kiting them. This combination with Temporal Chains is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

* Players are Cursed with Vulnerability
Negated during mapping with a Warding Flask, but not against bosses. Bleeds from bosses can kill you easily.

* Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains
I would personally avoid this on high-tier maps.

Final Skill Gem Setup

You’ll find recommendations for different attack skill setups for this build below. The basic buff and aura setups are down there too.

=== MAIN ATTACK ===
Vaal Righteous Fire ->  -> Increased Area of Effect -> Burning Damage -> Elemental Focus

Since you’re slotting this into a Helmet, you have several options for replacing the relevant skills on an Elder base with new options for better DPS.

  • Increased Area of Effect Elder Affix – Replace Increased Area of Effect with Efficacy or Concentrated Effect
  • Burning Damage Elder Affix – Replace Burning Damage with Efficacy
  • Concentrated Effect Elder Affix – Use as is.

=== SECONDARY ATTACK ===

Scorching Ray -> Flammability -> Cast When Channeling

=== MOVEMENT ===

Leap Slam -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify

=== AURA/UTILITY ===

Purity of Fire

Purity of Elements

The second Purity depends on what Resistances are capped. If you already capped your Cold Resistance, it is better to take Purity of Lightning and vice-versa if you have already capped your Lightning Resistance it is better to take Purity of Ice, or if you already have maxed both your Cold and Lightning resistances you can simply use Vitality.

Summon Stone Golem

Build Uniques / Example Rare Gear

In this section you will find all the suggested items for this build. We always try to include optional gear in our listing, or try your own assuming you get similar stat rolls. Aim for high-quality Rares if you’re replacing Uniques. The Minimum/Optional requirements listed assume you’re using Rares as a replacement for listed Uniques (where possible).

Stat Priorities:

Life is super important for survivability, especially at endgame. Although be careful not to forsake too many damage mods for it or you won’t be able to kill mobs quick enough for your defenses to handle incoming DPS.

Resistances, especially Fire are vital to keeping you alive. Purity of Fire and gear choices can easily push max Fire Resistance beyond 80%, which is awesome for this build.

Life Regeneration is the second layer you should pay attention to beyond a large Life pool.

Spell/Fire Damage is your primary DPS, get this in any way you can, as long as you don’t compromise defenses.

Cast/Attack Speed means that you simply attack faster the higher it is. This stat becomes vital for scaling overall DPS. Attack speed is great for Leap Slam to keep Fortify up.

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Weapons

A good and cheap starter option for your dual-wield combo relies on a couple of Unique options with a focus on getting more Elemental Damage and plenty of Resists and Life. That option setup leaves us with either Doryani’s Catalyst or Doon Cuebiyari.

But the real shine of this build comes through when you get a nice Elder/Shaper base and plug your Scorching Ray setup into it, making it a really powerful 4-Link with the right rolls.

Min. requirements:
90 Maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
90% increased Elemental Damage
% increased Fire Damage
Optional affixes:
Chaos Resistance
% Increased Damage over time
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Elemental Proliferation/% Chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Elemental Damage with Attacks/% increased Elemental Damage (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Efficacy/% Increased Spell Damage (Elder)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Fire Penetration/% Increased Fire Damage (Elder)

Shield

We recommend to choose between one of these two: Rise of the Phoenix or Saffell’s Frame. They are both pretty cheap and great options. With Saffell’s Frame and our passive tree we will have Lightning and Cold Resistance capped at 80% and Fire resistance even higher thanks to Purity of Fire.

Helmet

A Rare helmet slot is where your main RF damage setup goes once you have your Elder base. Once you have the Elder base with one or more of the following, change your gem setup to include new skills in the now open slots:

Socketed Gems are supported by level ?? Area of effect
Socketed Gems are supported by level ?? Burning Damage
Socketed Gems are supported by level ?? Concentrated Effect

Min. requirements:
90 Maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
Attributes (Intelligence)
Optional affixes:
Chaos Resistance
Reduced Attribute Requirements
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Increased Area of Effect/% Increased Area of Effect (Elder)
Socketed Gems are supported by Level ?? Concentrated Effect/% Increased Area Damage (Elder)
Socketed Gems are supported by Level ?? Burning Damage/% Increased Burning Damage (Elder)

Body Armor

Kaom’s Heart is your ultimate goal for a Unique. The very cheap Anbu’s Charge Unique can be used as a stopgap though.

A high-end Rare can do really well with this build in a pinch though. You can go for an Armour base, as they have pretty good Life. If going the Rare route, prepare to get needed attributes on the chest in order to get more DPS from your Jewels and other Affixes.

There are several ways to further increase the effectiveness of a Rare here, but they will massively increase the currency cost, as a high-end Armour that fits these parameters would be Mirror-service-worthy.

  • A +1/+2 Level to Socketed Gems Corruption is extremely useful if running a Rare.
  • % Increased Effect of Auras on you is good too, that comes from Bound fossils.
  • Getting Reduced Attribute Requirements can really help if you’re struggling with attributes. This can also free up other Affixes as you no longer need to waste them. This would allow you to further increase your DPS. Although getting this mod combination will be extremely hard, and will cost a lot of currency, so bank on just using a crafted affix instead.
  • Getting a high, or possibly Legacy, Increased Life and/or Chaos Resistance roll really helps with survivability.

Min. requirements:
100 maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
Attributes (Intelligence)
Optional affixes:
% Increased Maximum Life (Elder)
% Increased Maximum Life (Pristine Fossil)
Recover % of Maximum Life on Kill (Elder)
+ to Level of Socketed Support Gems (Elder)
% Increased Strength (Elder)
% increased Damage (Corruption)

Belt

Abyss Belts with Life and Resistances are a good option for more difficult end-game sections and bosses. Since you;re primarily focusing on Fire Damage, you need several rolls that synergize with that. Elemental Damage is a good start, and by adding in Life and Resistances, pretty much any Rare offers a good stopgap solution.

Some will opt for the very cheap Cyclopean Coil to get all the Attributes they need, while also increasing damage a bit, although for this build it’s definitely not the best option.

Min. requirements:
70 Maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
% Increased Life Recovery rate (Elder)
Optional affixes:
Reduced Flask Charges Used
Increased Flask Duration
% Increased Fire Damage (Scorched Fossil)
% increased Elemental Damage (Prismatic Fossil)

Gloves

Check here for some Unique options, most useful while leveling.

For a Rare, opt for Fingerless Silk Gloves for the extra Spell Damage. Use the following stats as a baseline for a Rare:

Min. requirements:
70 Maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
Optional affixes:
Chaos Resistance
Reduced Attribute Requirements
% Chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill (Elder)
% Global Chance to Blind Enemies/Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Blind (Shaper)

Boots

Rare boots with max rolled Life, Resists and Movement Speed are great as a generic choice, but you may find yourself a bit more prone to taking hits than you would like. This one is more of a personal judgment call. Here’s the basic requirements for Rare in this slot. Two-Toned Bootes are good here for the extra Resists.

Min. requirements:
70 maximum Life
30% increased Movement Speed
Uncapped Resistances (Focus on Cold and Lightning)
Optional affixes:
% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills (Crafted)
Chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill (Elder)

Once you’ve gotten decently into end-game, you may want to switch to a Unique that’s more tailored for the playstyle of the build.

Kaom’s Roots – This is an OK option for the Life and movespeed help, but you may be a little Socket-starved depending on your skill choices. I would say go for a Rare instead.

Amulet

A Rare can work great here, but the best Rare is one which offers some Elemental Damage scaling, and it will not be cheap. Carnage Heart offers a decent starter Unique option for this build while leveling. The Pandemonious is your best-in-slot Unique, but will be a little expensive. A decent Rare with some of the following stats is of course another option.

Min. requirements:
50 Maximum Life
% Elemental Damage with Attacks
Uncapped Resistances (Focus on Cold and Lightning)
Optional affixes:
Damage Penetrates % Elemental Resistance
% Increased Fire Damage (Scorched Fossil)
Chance to gain a Power, Frenzy or Endurance Charge on Kill (Shaper)
Grants Level  ?? Vitality Skill (Shaper)
% of Fire Damage Leeched as Life (Elder)

Rings

This is one of the few slots that must have a certain Unique. Kaom’s Way gives us 0.4% Life regeneration for each Endurance Charge + an extra Endurance Charge. The math breaks down in such a way that two of these combined with our Passive Tree and Ascendancy choices grants us  25.65% Life regeneration per second.

Flasks

Witchfire Brew – Grants major buffs to damage and a bit of defense.

Other Flasks:

  1. Catalysed Eternal Life Flask of Staunching
  2. Catalyzed Eternal Mana Flask of Warding
  3. Experimenter’s Sulphur Flask of Adrenaline or Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
  4. Chemist’s Ruby Flask of Heat

You can swap these mods around if needed due to RNG.

Jewels

Abyss Jewels that have a chance to gain Onslaught can also be used in a slot for a damage increase. Watcher’s Eye with buffs to Vitality can be really powerful. Rare Jewels will work just as well though in most cases, and be much cheaper.

Rare Jewels can run with the following stats:

Recommended affixes:

  1. % Increased Maximum Life
  2. % Increased Spell Damage
  3. % Increased Fire Damage
  4. % Increased Damage
  5. % Increased Burning Damage
  6. % Increased Area Damage

Optional affixes:
Attributes (Dexterity/Intelligence)
Damage Penetrates 1% Fire Resistance (Scorched Fossil)

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