[1.3] Vaal Righteous Fire Build [Updated pre 2.0.0]

The build is centered around building up for Vaal Righteous Fire with Flame Blast and doing massive damage with Vaal Righteous Fire to clear maps fast.

In this guide we will look at some of the many possible building, starting and end game gear options, as well we will take a look into leveling and getting started with this build.

I made this char as self found on the Torment league and it turned into a magic finder because - why not. And even with magic find gear I could one shot Crematorium boss, Palace Dominus 1st phase and Academy boss with Concentrated Effect Vaal Righteous Fire.

WARNING: Low Quality videos. Do not have a good PC for capturing videos. Should i make a 20 minute video guide?

Scion With Rarity set up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPEs8mQFLps

I had no problem leveling this build. Until i got elemental proliferation gem i just used lighting tendrils until flame blast proliferation and even did dominus and piety without capped resists.

As for Bandits, I killed them all but if you do not mind losing passive points you can:
In Normal Help Oak for more health,
In Cruel Help Alira for more cast speed,
In Merciless Help Oak for additional endurance charge to have longer Immortal Calls.

If you need guidance here is the routing i used when leveling my scion in Torment.

34-passive points in:
Strait path to Celectial Punishment
http://poeurl.com/zaybdv7

43-passive points in:
Work your way to Vaal Pact, at this point you can use Vaal Righteous Fire with Life leach support and start exloding and pretending you are a terrorist.
http://poeurl.com/zayboCk

48-passive points in:
Get Unwavering stance.
http://poeurl.com/zaybErb

65-passive points in:
Work your Way to Hearth of Flame and Blast Radius.
http://poeurl.com/zaybOJQ

84-Passive points in:
Start getting health. This is for level 66. I killed dominus at 65.
http://poeurl.com/zaybZYq

Start filling out the rest. See Start of post for current passive tree.

When I made this char I did not care for best possible starting options. I went with scion, because of the increased area effect nodes that compliment this build well. I will talk about the choices on my scion more in this post.

Current level 90 Scion Passive Tree:

http://poeurl.com/zaxN93i

You can make this build either as Templar, Witch or Scion depending on your personal preference.

Templar Passive Tree:

http://poeurl.com/y97409W


Witch Passive Tree:

http://poeurl.com/y977nZU

I would like to note, that these passive trees are from different people adjusting to there own personal preference. In Other words there are some passives that may be taken replaced depending on what you aim for. Templar gets more spell and elemental damage, Witch gets more cast speed, Scion gets more increased area of effect and mana.

Notable is that Celestial Punishment by Templar staring, only should be taken if your damage is not super high and you recast flame blast on packs of mobs to get the benefit of increased damage versus ignited enemies. I took it because of more chance to ignite, and the purpose to not use chance to ignite gem for my flame blast. Also I am using Herald of Thunder, that shocks enemies when i use flame blast and proliferates it.

At first i did not have Quick Recovery cluster because I had no mana problems casting flame blast withh 4 auras. I choose to remove Inner Force and take Quick Recovery as a result of replacing chance to ignite with concentrated effect that has more mana multiplier, resulting in some casting issues with 4 auras.

Inner Force was removed because after getting level 20 purity auras my max resists did not go past 80% as expected. Just with the Aura cluster by Templar i get 80% max resists. Inner Force should only be taken if either you do not take the Aura cluster or you run different auras that benefit from Inner Force more significantly.

Vaal Righteous Fire 4-link

Vaal Righteous Fire - Life Leach - Chance to Ignite - Elemental Proliferation

Vaal Righteous Fire 5-link

Vaal Righteous Fire - Life Leach - Chance to Ignite - Elemental Proliferation - Increased Area of Effect/Concentrated Effect

Life Leach gem with Vaal Pact is a MUST to make Vaal Righteous Fire work.

Some might say Increased Area is a overkill, but I like to clear and build up charges fast, and for bosses that have higher health i switch Increased Area with Concentrated Effect.

[01.05.2015]
There are two ways to use Vaal Righteous Fire. Either you:
1: Use ele prolif and chance to ignite for insane screen clear.
2: Or Remove Ele prolif and just use increased area and conc for a burst damage

Flame Blast 4-link

Flame Blast - Elemental Proliferation - Chance to Ignite/Concentrated Effect - Spell Echo

Flame Blast 5-link

Flame Blast - Elemental Proliferation - Chance to Ignite/Concentrated Effect - Spell Echo - Fire Penetration


Life Leach is not a must unless you want to Atziri. I can do elemental reflect maps without a problem because of the ignite damage but must be taken with grain of salt.

Fire penetration Is something you must choose to have or not have, only really needed fore fire resistance maps, and only a few mobs have so high resistance that would make flame blast suck. But if you use 5 link for flame blast then use fire penetration, it will make your life easier and Atziri trash will be a lot faster.

It is all up to you to use either 5link for Flame Blast or Vaal Righteous Fire. If you want to do Atziri, then flame blast with fire penetration is a must. The thing is Fire penetration and Life leach are Red gems, so you must adapt your socket colors accordingly.

[01.05.2015]
You do not need chance to ignite if you have quality Flameblast! unless you prefer it...

Flame Blast 6-link

Flame Blast - Elemental Proliferation - Concentrated Effect - Spell Echo - Fire Penetration - Life Leech - IF USING PLEDGE OF HANDS Faster casting/Chance to Ignite

I feel this build is not gear dependent, and if you are just aiming for clearing maps, then a cheep cast speed weapon with little spell damage is all you need to get your flame blast going even in a 4-link. You do not need a 5-link but i advice you get it either for Flame Blast or Vaal Righteous Fire just to make your life easier and if you want to take a crack at Atziri.

The beauty of this build is that the damage from ignite proliferates, Flame Blasts, and Vaal Righteous Fire is so good, you only want to focus on your defenses, and there is room for magic find.

Vaal Righteous Fire Damage scales from your currant remaining health and energy shield. So focus on gear aside from resistances should be plenty of life and a bit of cast speed.

Most of my Items cost me 1 chaos aside from chest, helmet and maces that are not mandatory.

Here are two Unique items that are very cheep, that i recommend as starter items.

This build is not mine. I got the idea from Kapps Reddit post:

I would like to thank him for the inspiration!

This guide was made because many people started asking for it.

[01.05.2015]
I would like to thank all the people who write me and thank for the guide! I did not expect to get so much attention. You guys inspired me to keep at it and try this build again in the new expansion.

Created: 30.12.14.

Update 1
04.01.15.
Edited all entries.
Added Suggested Leveling Items.
Leveling passive tree progression.
Bandits.

Update 2
01.05.15.
Thanks!
Reworked arrangement of entries.
Updated Gearing section.
Updated Gear I use.
Added new videos.

Note : i swap spell echo for ignite when not using Mokou's Embrace was way too lazy to post it twice after swapping

I feel that if you go the safe route, any flame blast build is viable for hardcore, as long as you do not one shot yourself to elemental reflect. But that is my opinion, and I bet a experienced HC player might think otherwise, and I would not blame him.

I am a soft core player, and i often do stupid shit, but there have been some stupid deaths like, invisible rhoas charges with crits, devourers poping in random maps with vulnerability or added damage mod, and other stuff. Devourers with added damage or vulnerability and any random deadly combination should be avoided like the plague!

But if you go carefully, smart, and avoid super deadly maps like i suppose, any hardcore player would, then this build is hard core viable. You can have 5k health easily. The damage is good. Just be aware of deadly map mod synergy with bosses.

It can one shot bosses, even Palace Dominus and the trio before Atziri, so just be vary of heavy hitting stuff, because potions and immortal call are your only defenses. Managed to get level 91 too and planing to go 92 if i feel like it.

The set up I use, and passive tree, that has been posted in this post, i have stun immunity, long immortal calls, that let me free cast flame blast in many packs of mobs, and 80% all resists, and you could get more if you switch out passives a bit.

You cant die from Vaal RF as long as you have Vaal Pact and life leach attached to it. The leach is instant, and as long as you hit a pack of mobs you are always going to be full health after using Vaal RF.

But there are situations where you need to hit a single mob. For example: bosses with no mob packs near them, but there are almost none like that, aside from Shrine Piety. When a situation like that, or a single Exile, happens, i use both of my instant heal flasks, because on a single mob, the heal could be to low.

But to answer your main concern, I remember dying to chaos degen ground in a map once, but the reason was that I clicked on my Vaal RF before i opened a strongbox, so nothing was hit, and the degen killed me. Do not play when you are sleepy!