[2.6] Chieftain dual Siege Ballista. All map mods. 8k life. Beginner and budget tips.

Pros

- super long range, very fast clearing speed, you will click totems for 4 times less often to get same clearing effect as ancestral warchief on high tier maps
( Biggest advantage this build is gigantic range, it's like 2-3x times more then flame totem or ancestral warchief totem builds. It makes overall clearing speed much better and leech stronger )
- amazing leech for you and your totems, making totem uptime much longer and you safer
- you don't have to stand close to totems to make they active, even off-screen totems will kill stuff ( this is much safer and effective then ancestral warchif )
- You can do all map mods, with Xoph's Blood amulet your totems are 100% immune to any type of reflect dmg
- no regen maps are super easy : just swap wed for blood magic gem
- You can do blood magic maps easy, just turn auras off
- Don’t depend on “must run and kill non stop”: you can play casually, take breaks, pickup items and coffers and dps will be always awesome
- Only one click for clear screen, its very comfortable and safe at same time because when you cast you stop that makes you vulnerable and slow
- It's safest Siege Ballista version of all Siege Ballista builds available, it offers way more hp and defence perks
- You don’t have to worry about accuracy at all: Lioneye's Glare provides 100% hit chance
- Build is nerf resistant: it not exploit any current meta but still goes fast and efficient
- Its super cheap, you can start endgame for 9c or lower
- No lag, party friendly, good for old PC too ( low graphical skill effects )
- You need only 27 extra int in items dex and str are provided
- That build offers versatile, balanced dmg with options to counter current map resistances: you are not depended on physical or elemental dmg
- This build is very efficient for farming labyrinth
- Very low mana skill costs

Cons

- you must keep moving like 90% time, leech is good but don't try facetank
- Leveling needs some gear and clever poe.trade usage: its not about currency ( very cheap items ) but if you completely refuse to use poe.trade you will suffer
- relatively very low single target "boss" dps if compared to ancestral warchief
- longer boss encounters means you are forced to play and dodge perfectly for much bigger time, it's dangerous and risky

Bow: mediocre roll is good enough to start at 66 lvl, buy it for 1c ( save money for Drillneck ) you need only 4L ( 3 green 1 blue ) on bow for start.

5L chest piece, can be crap like that linked one which was buyed for 1 c only, important thing: 100% EVASION ONLY because you need 4 green and 1 red socket ( DON'T BUY hybrid ones, re-coloring will ruin you ! )

Boots MUST be 30% movement speed, don't buy 25% speed or less, that boots in example was buyed for 1 c.

Rain of splinters jewel roll form range 35-45% is fine, buy it for 1 c.

Drilleck is HUGE boost but most expensive item on that list, sometimes you can lucky buy it for 6c, buy most likely will cost 10c or more.

Normal: Help Oak for +40 Life

Cruel: Help Kraityn for +8% Attack Speed

Merciless: Help Kraityn for +1 Frenzy charge

UPDATE: This build should be played as Marauder Chieftain ( Hinekora - Tukohama )
Leech is so strong you will be barely use life flasks.




During leveling grab Hinekora ( leech ) node first.

If you are beginner I strongly recommend watch movies on this channel to understand basics,
those are great tutorial so even more advanced players still can learn a lot things:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaFHfrY-6uGSAvmczp_7a6Q/videos

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Leveling this build as marauder in first day of new league is a bit of pain. Crucial items needs dexterity you will lacking, and they are probably too expensive in first league days. So I recommend do 1-53 lvl using mostly flame totems. Supported by searing bond totem and fire trap. Those skill needs items with spell dmg and cast speed. Links for flame totem are : Flame Totem, Faster Casting, Elemental Focus and Controlled Destruction, but even 2 or 3 linked setup works great and has very low mana cost. At 53 lvl you can buy Ifractem bow and switch to ranger - bow playstyle. This bow is super cheap even on first league day, mostly 1-3c range, and very soon ( literally hours ) drops to 1 alch price range. If you cant afford Rain of Splinters use greater multiple projectiles for siege ballista. This build starts works properly at 66 lvl when you got Lioneye's Glare, 4 ascendancy points, Drillneck, and Rain of Splinters gem. 4L is enough, but rest rather mandatory to get build feeling.

Starting part of passive tree for:



then follow into:






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2.5 UPDATE

Below this line it's old outdated info about leveling this build as ranger. I will keep it for those who join league not in first day, so they can afford using those items and enjoy low prices. Also if you try this build when already have other char and some currency this info below can be useful.

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Ability to use poe.trade is very important. You can start PoE today and you will be able to buy many items during leveling from currency drops you get. That poe.trade items can be filtered by stats and price, so be smart buy good ones cheap. You never need buy any item above 1 chaos value to make leveling fast and easy. Remember you can always get some fusings for trades by buying higher currency at act 2 and 3 vendors in that order:



Fusing is very high value currency item. You can check current currency rations on http://poe.ninja/esc/currency Learn how to sell and exchange currency in poe.trade for chaoses you will need. poe.trade is place where you get real power and leveling comfort, also its super important in endgame.

Try avoid crafting as much as you can, in 99% cases you can buy required item with proper socket, colours and links for 300% less then crafting price.

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Most important item for leveling IMO are good boots with movement speed bonus.
I suggest start from lvl 2 with



or if you are rich player buy that super good ones



if you cant afford that new 50% ones, buy at 16 lvl Nomic's Storm very good and underrated 40% run speed boots



That boots should be replaced around 50 lvl, when you can buy something like that ones:



Price range is about 1 alch - 1 chaos, excluding very expensive Seven-League Boots

Second thing to lvl fast and efficient is good Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline, with extra speed as close as possible to +30%



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Everybody says leveling Siege Ballista is pain, so I will try explain in very detailed way how to make it easy and pleasant. I will recommend build tree for some lvl range and critical items making it efficient.

When you start I suggest use split arrow gem.



This will be your main skill for lvl range 2-31. If you want easy start and can afford some expenses I suggest that gear:



Each of that items should cost max 1 alch - 1 chaos, if you cant afford all focus on getting that bow and amulet.

Siege Ballista gem is lvl 4 quest reward, when you get first it feels very bad, slow and worthless. You will use it as supplement for split arrow, not as primary attack. Lvl-s 4-11 are that ones when you feel this is bad gem and you will not like it at all.

- Lvl 8 get 2x

use
or

- lvl 11

now is time very important purchase: get rain of splinter jewel ( in new fresh league start this is probably impossible because gem cost is simply too high, link Siege Ballista with lesser multiple projectiles or later use extra arrow-s bows. )



and put it in build tree. It provides 2 extra arrows on Ballistas without extra mana cost. You should buy it on poe.trade, and don’t need any high roll for it. Even worst one -50% dmg are absolutely fine, but ofc get best one for currency you have: 1 alch on psc is around 40-43% range, 1 chaos I like 36-40% range ( remember less is better ) Don’t buy best rolls: its waste of currency you can spend on improving more important gear like Drillneck in future. ( prices info outdated )

Also get for nice jumps and opening strongboxes:



- 18 lvl you can get 2x 4-linked items and use more support gems like :



and swap bow for that beauty:



Try buy clarity gem and use it, you will need now much better mana regen.

also you can swap some items for more mana regen like :



and get your first dps aura gem:



- 24 lvl



nice rings to have, but optional because you must snipe poe.trade well to buy they for 1c low price


also your first and only curse, used manually for hard targets



and next aura



- 28 lvl



- 31~34 lvl

Very big and important change : you will reach ancestral bond, so you no longer can do dmg by split arrow, but can use 2x Siege Ballista totems.
Also at 31 lvl you can get more support gems like that ones :



Its time to get 5-linked evasion chest or tabula rasa



that kind 5L chest is very cheap, you can buy it for 1c, Tabula is like 13c so rather skip it if you are new player

Which support gems you want use depends on your mana regen, if you got any problems use reduced mana linked. Most important gems to feel Ballistas comfortable are Faster Projectiles and Faster Attacks.

also buy for 1c:



- 36 lvl if you can afford buy Drillneck it s HUGE upgrade, but will cost around 10c





corrupted without extra arrow like that one are usually cheapest

if you are rich go crazy and get extra arrow one IT'S WORTH IT ( around 4ex :P )




- 53 lvl

you can buy for 1c and use :



- 66 lvl

buy your first



try to buy 320-330 dps one for 1c, if possible with 4 sockets and 4 links


DON'T BUY 5 linked or 6 linked ones, they are expensive, and it way easier and cheaper buy good 5L or 6L evasion chest piece.

At 72 lvl, get fire / lighting / cold resistances capped, this is #1 priority at that lvl
Resistances capped means you got fire, lighting and cold res above 75% in any merciless zone.
Hideout is like normal so it's harder to check it there.
Chaos resistance is very hard to cap, so skip it.

When you start gearing for endgame and using poe.trade a lot if you are new player I suggest watch this video series to understand how budged purchases should be done:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4aZrsY9M5qBxERp-3iAA8iyyFyeWvaxA

This series is made by ZiggyD for other type of build, but still you can learn a lot how to buy cheep good items and how good poe.trade inquiry's looks like.

Crafting tutorial video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD5LeeB0H-Y

Siege Ballista gems:

4L skip wed and pierce, 5L skip wed



Curse spread:

4L skip enchance



Defence, mobility

outdated defence gems, this should be : CWDT, increased duration, immortal call, and temporal chains



Auras



Golems

stone golem is for labyrinth runs ONLY, minion life and empower are mistakes ( can't delete because forum post reasons )



If you got currency get first quality support gems for Siege Ballista ( but NOT quality Siege Ballista itself )

Some gems should stay at lvl 1: Blink Arrow, Frenzy and Greater Multiple Projectiles because higher lvls means more mana cost and no benefits for ancestral bound bilds like this at all.

Optimal level for Cast When Damage Taken is 8, Immortal Call 10, Temporal Chains 11.

During leveling if you are very rich buying 15-20q / 1 lvl support gems will increase your dps enormously.

Lightning Golem should be 20/20, it's not yet because it's new stuff added to PoE one of last patches

Which gem is best as 21 lvl and which 23q, what benefits from quality most, you can check this here:

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Active_skill_gem

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Support_skill_gem

Gloves:

- Commandment of Spite

Boots:

- Adds 1-160 Lightning Damage if you haven't Killed Recently

Helmet:

- 40% increased Siege Ballista Damage

Uber lab boots / helmet enchants are super strong

dps gains:

helmet 38452 --> 40483
boots 38452 --> 42100
both 38452 --> 44391

try get uber lab boots enchant first, and ASAP

List sorted from best ( and max possible values ) :

1. 7% increased maximum Life
2. 16% increased totem damage
3. 16% increased physical damage with bows
4. 8% increased attack speed with bows
5. 12% increased projectile damage
6. 10% increased damage
7. 8% projectile speed
8. 5% increased attack speed

#1 rule is you need every jewel with "increased maximum Life"

If you want good and CHEAP jewel buy 2 stats ( above ) blue one and use regal orb on it. If you get lucky you will rise jewel value about 30X

5x 7% life jewels = 35% increased maximum Life + 216% increased maximum Life from passive tree = 251% increased maximum Life !!!

very good jewel buying guide by Mathil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr5kC8TdeHU

For latest gear, passive tree, gems, links, etc plz check my char Elua_Brach

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Elua/characters

this are outdated items below, can't change it because forum item linking issues:

Dried lake farm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqUgnCRQjc

Precinct Map

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCJiAP6Uyv0

Gorge map

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbKfAmKist8

another Gorge map run, 1080p quality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5uimIrqbOU

uber lab run, recorded and played by OGPlatypus using this build

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHfFtb-alp0

I have done Atziri multiple times without die and t15 maps too, but my PC is too slow to record that stuff because huge fps drops makes game risky. Maybe in future I will add more interesting stuff after PC upgrade.

Biggest build achievement is Hall of Granmasters clear, where I can't kill only single, last mob: QBotU_DyNess

outdated, in 2.5 my most developed char ( Elua_Avatar standard league ) got 7748 hp and 42202 dmg per totem in hideout ( auras up but no flask, frenzy or vaal haste up )

dmg tooltips in hideout

http://i.imgur.com/3IwPZlc.jpg

and with all frenzy charges and vaal haste

http://i.imgur.com/jrJjr10.jpg

defence with stone golem and boots hp regen enchant proc

http://i.imgur.com/0hknCxT.jpg

full defence using Jade flask and Vaal Grace

http://i.imgur.com/PzBeUHj.jpg

mobility: standard 61%, with Quicksilver flask 131%, with Phase Run proc 102%
with both flask and Phase Run proc 172%

http://i.imgur.com/ap7bXzF.jpg

misc

http://i.imgur.com/w8pF0yK.jpg