[2.6] LHC Rank #17 - Righteous Fire - Juggernaut

(3/30/17) - Videos of Forge of the Phoenix and Atziri added

(3/29/17) - Sections on Map Mods and Ascendancy Order added

(3/28/17) - Sections on Leveling and Jewels added

(3/27/17) - Guide created

Towards the end of Breach, I wanted to make a build that was tanky, cleared relatively fast, and didn't rely on leech for sustain. So I decided on righteous fire. When it became clear the that radius was getting a hefty buff in 2.6, it then became my first choice for pushing ladder in LHC.

The basics are the same as most other RF builds:
- Get as much life as possible
- Get as much fire resistance as possible
- Get enough life regen to sustain RF
- Use EE and curses to reduce enemy resistances

However, I then take this a bit further. I see a lot of RF builds on here still using outdated and clunky mechanics, such as using cyclone + CoH to apply curses, which is slow and not efficient. I instead found a way to fit in addition to purity of fire, 2 blasphemy curses. I decided on enfeeble + flammability for a balance of safety and extra damage.

Elemental Equilibrium is applied by having flat cold damage on my gloves, allowing shield charge to proc it. I also include orb of storms + inc crit strikes to more reliably trigger Elemental Overload vs bosses (and also triggers EE).

Lots of RF Builds seem to get just enough regen to sustain RF. Instead, I wanted to get way more than that, which led to me using two kaom's way.



The amount of regen I have on the tree alone is enough to sustain RF. In addition to that, with my 10 endurance charges up I get an extra 10% regen!! (.4% from each kaom's way per endurance charge, .2% from tree per endurance charge). I also recieve an additional 1.9% regen from the juggernaut ascendancy whenever I have fortify activated.

The first question I get from many people, is why juggernaut over chieftain for righteous fire? Well the short answer is Endurance Charge Synergy. The long answer is that after much testing in preparation for 2.6 I came to the conclusion that it's just straight up better.

Chieftain may seem like the obvious choice, but it just doesn't work with endurance charges as good as Juggernaut does. Also, Juggernaut has GREAT endurance charge generation. If chieftain loses charges right before a boss fight, they will take much longer to get those charges back compared to juggernaut. This is because of juggernaut's 25% chance to gain full charges when a charge is gained (this works with both Enduring Cry, and the chance to get an endurance charge when hit).

In addition to the juggernaut's endurance charge perks, it also offers a better fortify which offers more damage mitigation and gives extra damage. Immunity to temp chains and other slowing effects is also a nice bonus.

With fortify up and 10 endurance charges I get an extra:

-90% Increased damage
-11.9% Life Renerated per Second
-25% Damage reduction from fortify (up from 20%)
-40% Physical damage reduction
-8% Less elemental damage taken (this also reduces self RF damage...)

3/30/17:
T16 Forge of the Phoenix: https://youtu.be/8dWm5WHsmxQ
Atziri: https://youtu.be/BD3ddtXrXZg

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3/27/17:
All the videos below were recorded with the gear I used to push to 100, which I neglected to upgrade in favor of mapping supplies. You'll notice I don't switch to conc effect on any of the bosses. This is mostly out of laziness, since they die fast enough anyway.

T11 Shaped Strand: https://youtu.be/DLjiOOy0xMw
T13 Shaped Shore: https://youtu.be/Ah959c_qch8
T14 Shaped Promenade: https://youtu.be/LzJxhskXMIA
Poorjoy's Asylum: https://youtu.be/21WaHD05mpw

I leveled with flameblast totems from 28 to 68 and it went pretty smoothly. The first 28 levels can be a little frustrating though. The way I did it was...

2 Lifesprigs the entire way to 68

Level 1 to 12: Freezing Pulse + Fire Trap
Level 12 to 28: Firestorm + Firestorm totem
Level 28 to 68: Dual Flameblast Totems

Skill Tree ~level 20: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAADEBAAAWxthYYz38jM_2SF8_FCDvDlBH5FFnm64-xq4LYa9saPLwH6IABLPAZjwF73wAAAAAAA==

Skill Tree ~level 30: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAEUBAAAgxthYYz38jM_2SF8_FCDvDlBH5FFnm64-xq4LYa9saPLwH6IABLPAZjwF73zE9nKprKpZ83IPZp5Y5SoTWiuj8gAAAAAA

Skill Tree ~level 50: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAH8BAAA9xthYYz38jM_2SF8_FCDvDlBH5FFnm64-xq4LYa9saPLwH6IABLPAZjwF73zE9nKprKpZ83IPZp5Y5SoTWiuj8hDM_od7IPiT9zLqGPjrFHEOPCynSsT2rnasz37ZfIIHPC2DzLc-_grYvTpSvJ8YkeFzmjuCm-081aYAAAAAAA==

My tree when I switched to RF at 68: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAALcBMwBZxthYYz389khfPxQg7w5QR-RRZ5uuPsauC2GvbGjy8B-iAASzwGY8Be98xPZyqayqWfP3MuoY-OsUcQ48dqzPftl8ggc8LYPMtz7-Cti9OlK8nxiRGjiQVScvxFg26AHn_EsUTRpVYSFkowHchNlHfr02hO_awXTtBS2i6hLhu-2Rzp8-LdJBh_nogsco-riTmK0c3OvumuBFnVNSJ-0GDtR8CfZlTTWS_o9N46ZXOuHyRQAAAAAA

Some things to keep in mind... To switch at 68 you will need at least a level 17 Purity of Fire, and a decently leveled Vitality. As long as you have two enlighten lvl 2's (or one lvl 3) you can run Purity of Fire, Vitality, and one blasphemy curse (enfeeble for safety or flammability for damage). If you can't afford enlightens yet, just use PoF and Vitality until you can afford them.

Technically you don't need Vitality since you will easily sustain RF when endurance charges are up (1% regen per charge). However I prefer to be able to sustain without any charges (or fortify) so that everything else is extra regen. It also is safer, since getting hit by a nullifier mob would then cause you to degen.

Once your Purity of Fire hits level 20, you can drop Vitality and still sustain RF without endurance charges. At this point you should also have whispers of doom for dual curse. If you still don't have enlightens, switch your Vitality out for one blasphemy curse (enfeeble or flammability). If you do have your enlightens (or one enlighten 3) you can switch to the final form of Purity of Fire + Blasphemy Enfeeble and Flammability.

Normal: Oak (life)
Cruel: Skill Point
Merciless: Oak (endurance charge)

My current tree at 100: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAEBAAHcAecEswUtBg4Gxgn2C2EMXw48EuEUIBRNFHEWbxa7GFYYahiRGjgaVRpsHKcc3CSqJy8n7Sj6LdIuUzWSNug26TpSOuE8BTwtPfxBh0WdR35N41BHU1JTpVZIWAdYY1nzXaRfP2EhZKNlTWebaGVodGjycql07XaseC9673zlggeCx4Nfg8yE2YTvjM-PGo9GkFWRzpitmuCboZ2unz6iAKLqplenCKyqrY2uPq9stz64k7vtvJ-9Nr6nwAHAZsRYxPbGrsbYz37Tb9R82CTYvdl82mLawd3V42rkUeoY6-7vDu988B_yQfJF843z3fSD9kj3Mve5-Ov56PxL_gr-jw==?accountName=Nerdicide&characterName=RighteousNerd

Level 70 tree: http://www.poeplanner.com/AAYAALsRMwBbxthYYz38xFj2SF8_FCDvDlBH5FFnm64-xq48LYPMtz7-Cti9NZL-j03jplc64fJFC2GvbGjy8B-iAASzwGY8Be98xPZyqayqWfMaOJBVJy-fPi3SDF8cp1OlJ-0GDtR8Cfb3MuoY-OsUcXasz37ZfIIHDjw6UryfGJH8SxRNAec26BpVYSFkowHchNlHfr02hO_awXTtBS1Bh_nogsco-pituJMc3OvumuBFnVNSu-2RzqLqEuEAAAAAAA==

Level 90 tree: http://www.poeplanner.com/AAYAAOMRMwBvxthYYz38xFj2SF8_FCDvDlBH5FFnm64-xq48LYPMtz7-Cti9NZL-j03jplc64fJFC2GvbGjy8B-iAASzwGY8Be98xPZyqayqWfMaOJBVJy-fPi3SDF8cp1OlJ-0GDtR8Cfb3MuoY-OsUcXasz37ZfIIHDjw6UryfGJH8SxRNAec26BpVYSFkowHchNlHfr02hO_awXTtBS1Bh_nogsco-pituJMc3OvumuBFnVNSu-2RzqLqEuGnCI9Gm6EYajlSWAePGoNfZU2-p3rvna4abDbpJKoWb-NqrY3yQYzPAAAAAAA=

If you ever need more regen to sustain RF while leveling, take the 3% and 4% node by scion. If you have good jewels with life, you can always remove a couple life nodes and grab jewels spots instead.

-Unflinching
-Unrelenting
-Unyielding
-Unstoppable

Unstoppable is mostly a QoL thing, so it's definitely saved for uber lab. It is not necessary for the build to preform, so if you are not comfortable running uber lab yet, do NOT rush into it just for the last points. I would wait until you at least have a kaom's heart.

Main RF Links:
Righteous Fire + Elemental Focus + Increased Burning Damage + Increased AoE
Switch out Increased AoE for Conc Effect vs bosses

Auras:
Purity of Fire (unlinked)
Enlighten level 3 + Blasphemy + Enfeeble + Flammability

Mobility:
Blood Magic + Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Fortify

Utility:
Blood Magic + Enduring Cry
Blood Magic + Orb of Storms + Increased Crit Strikes


If you don't have an enlighten 3, this can work fine with TWO enlighten 2's, but requires some shifting around. The only real downside is that your orb of storms will lose Increased Crit Strikes.

Change your scepter to: Blood Magic + Enduring Cry + Orb of Storms
Change your shield to: Enlighten level 2 + purity of fire + whatever you want (this setup gives you an extra socket to put a vaal skill or something in)

As I said earlier, the rares are NOT min maxed in this setup, but it is what I used to push to 100 in LHC...

Required Items:


Strongly Recommended Items:



Helm crafted with Essence of Horror is extremely important, as it provides us with 30% MORE damage. It can be tough to get a good one, but if you can get enough resistances elsewhere, then the only important roll is life. Ignore the anger reservation enchant, it's just what I ended up with and didn't have time while pushing to correct. The best enchant would be Righteous Fire Damage. If you care about chromatics, craft it on an ES base or an ES hybrid base.

Other items:


Keep in mind that you will need to get flat cold OR lightning damage on either your gloves or amulet in order for your shield charge to proc EE. This also means you can NOT have flat fire damage on any items.

All I cared about while pushing ladder was having Life and Chaos Resist on my jewels. Ideally, in addition to those 2 stats, look for increased damage, area damage, fire damage.

One of the main drawbacks everyone lists for RF builds is having to reroll maps a lot. This has some truth to it, but honestly it's not that bad.

Can't do:
-Maximum Resistances
Less/No Regeneration

Can do, but is sketchy:
Cursed with Vulnerability
As long as you keep endurance charges up, you won't degen

Free IIQ/Packsize:
Cursed with Temp Chains
Elemental Reflect
Physical Reflect
Cannot Leech Life/Mana
Cursed with Elemental Weakness

Annoying Mods, but no problem:
Hexproof
Less Area of Effect

The first dangerous situation I want to talk about is just rolling dangerous maps, which is equally scary for other builds. More than two damage mods is something that should be avoided on hardcore imho. An example would be...

30% Increased Monster Damage
Monsters Deal 100% Extra Damage as Cold
Monsters deal 100% Extra Damage as Lightning

I would never run this map... You COULD make an exception if one of the damage mods is Extra Damage as Fire, since we have 88% fire resistance, but I still wouldn't

The other situation that's worth mentioning is Nullifier mobs. Getting hit with Nullifier is always annoying, and potentially deadly if the timing is really bad. When you are hit with Nullifier, you lose all endurance charges, which removes all of our physical mitigation and almost all of our extra regen (on top of RF). This is especially deadly when it happens in the middle of a breach, especially if you don't notice it because of all the action going on around you.

My advice for Nullifier is to just mouse over nemesis mobs and check their modifiers (good advice for any build). If you see nullifier, be prepared to Enduring Cry as soon as it dies.