Path of Exile 2: SMITH OF KITAVA Endgame Build

What’s happening, y’all? It’s Librarian Husky, and today we finally take a look at what I personally consider the best warrior build for both mapping and bossing.

Best Warrior Build for Mapping and Bossing

Anyone who joined the live these couple of days knows that we tried actually four or five different variations of this build to get to this point, but we finally managed to get the best version of the warrior smith of Kitava, to be precise, for this league. Now, before we break Everything down, let’s start with a preview of what mapping and bossing looks like with this build.

Everything starts with fire spell on hit. And fire spell on hit is obtained by this ascendancy node right here, Heat of the Forge. The most important thing here is that we’re actually going to add Detonate Dead, which is what you saw the after effects happening in the mapping there. Now, for this to make sense for our build, the most important thing to remember for Detonate Dead is, as you can see, we have it at level seven. You don’t need to go higher level than that because of the intelligence. The support gems on Detonate Dead, which is going to go into fire spell on hit, it’s going to be energy retention, so we can be able to accumulate more energy while we’re mapping. Then we have Impetus for 40% increase energy as well. Then we’ve got Spell Cascade. It does reduce a little bit the damage, but this is what actually explodes multiple different areas around us. And lastly, we’ve got Fluke, which what this is going to do is you’re going to deal less damage or more damage depending on what is going to be triggered for the additional cost.

The most important thing in this build for mapping is the one-two combo that we said before, and we’re starting with the first ability, Resonating Shield. This is the protagonist, the prime attack that we’re actually using throughout bossing and mapping. And what this does is as a normal warrior with a mace and a shield, all you do is just walk around and you bang your shield. And that bang is going to actually deal a lot of damage because it’s going to emanate shock waves, dealing quite significant damage to everything around it. It also breaks their Armor and lowers their armor. But not only that, whenever you’re using Resonating Shield, that’s why we’re spamming it. We’re raising our shield as well and we’re blocking all incoming blockable hits. We have five support gems here. Number one, we’re starting with Rage because we’re going to use Resonating Shield.

We’re going to spam this and it’s going to give us three Rage every single time that we do that and whenever we hit somebody. Then we have Overpower because we want it to be able to stun them or prime for stun them. We’re going to check that in a second. Then we have Break Posture, which dazes the targets whenever we fully break their armor, which is cool stuff. Then we’ve got Armor Explosion for additional explosions whenever we break their armor. And lastly, we’ve got Demolisher, which breaks 50% more armor than usual. That’s everything that we need on Resonating Shield to work perfectly on bosses and mapping.

Key Components of the Warrior Build

The warrior build focuses on utilizing fire spell on hit in combination with Detonate Dead to maximize damage output during both mapping and bossing. By strategically incorporating support gems like energy retention, Impetus, Spell Cascade, and Fluke, players can enhance their energy accumulation and area damage capabilities.

Furthermore, the Resonating Shield serves as the primary attack mechanism, allowing warriors to unleash shock waves, break enemy armor, and block incoming hits. Supported by Rage, Overpower, Break Posture, Armor Explosion, and Demolisher, the Resonating Shield becomes a formidable tool for dealing with bosses and navigating through challenging maps.

Bone Shatter Ability

So what Bone Shatter does here is simply a strike, an uppercut, and usually how you want to use this is whatever doesn’t die from Resonating Shield is most likely going to be primed for stun. For anybody who doesn’t know what it is, it’s enemies that are not stunned, but they’re very, very close to being heavily stunned. So, whenever they’re primed for stun, you’re going to see a nice little yellow glowy circle on them, like an orb almost attached on them. And whenever you see that, you’re going to Bone Shatter and it’s going to deal a massive amount of damage.

For Bone Shatter to work perfectly for mapping, we need Impact Shockwave so we can have aftershocks whenever they are heavily stunned. Then we have Exploit Weakness. It cannot break the armor. However, consume enemy fully broken armor to deal 40% more damage. Then we have Ancestral Call so we can ancestrally boost this ability once every 6 seconds, which for anybody who doesn’t know what that does, it gives us 30% more damage and 20% more area of effect if we get it ancestrally boosted. Then we have Magnified Effect. And lastly, we’ve got Fire Infusion for 25% more fire damage.

The next ability on the list here is called Sunder, and it’s the main bossing ability. What Sunder does, it slams the ground, creating a fissure that damages enemies in a sequence of areas in front of you. And not only this is a great AoE ability, but for bosses, it’s going to be devastating. We’re trying to one or twoshot them, but there is a rotation into it that we’re going to cover in a second.

The support gems that we want on Sunder are things like Hourglass. Why? Because we don’t actually spam this ability. So, Hourglass is really good here. We use it once every 10 seconds anyway. 30% more damage. Good to go. Fist of War. Once again, attacks with support skills are accessory boosted. No more than once every 6 seconds. Then we’ve got Concentrated Effect for 30% more area damage. Primal Armament 25% more elemental damage. And Super Critical for 100% critical damage bonus.

After Sunder, we’ve got our two cries.

Empowering Attacks with Infernal Cry and Seismic Cry

Simply put, both of these are here to empower our next attack. Infernal Cry simply empowers your next ability and Seismic Cry knocks back the enemies if possible. If the enemy is heavily stunned, then it’s going to allow your next hit to have an additional aftershock.

For Infernal Cry, we need Premeditation, 15% more damage. We’ve got Enraged War Cry for that consumption of the energy that we’re building with the Resonating Shield. We’ve got Tireless for a 30% chance to not lower empowerment count. And we’ve got Rage and Cry so we can stack even more Rage. So then our Sunder can use the entire Rage for more damage.

For Seismic Cry to work out, we need Dazing Cry. Devastate that fully breaks armor when inflicting a heavy stun. Batter Shout to consume that fully broken armor so we can deal even more physical damage explosion with some crit. And then Corrupting Cry that causes them to inflict corrupted blood on the enemies in their area of effect.

Then we’ve got two more bossing abilities. We’ve got Solar Orb and Flame Ability. Solar Orb, you put it on the ground. The main reason that we have Solar Orb here is so we can put in Font of Rage. So, whenever we’re inside the orb or on top of the orb, we’re generating even more Rage. Then, we’ve got Font of Blood, so it can give us 2% life regeneration whenever we’re on top of the orb for more defensive fire exposure to reduce the fire resistance of the boss. And of course, Strip Away, so we can get 20% extra effect on that exposure.

Flame Ability is a curse. We apply that to the boss. The reason why we care about this is because we want the fire resistance even lower on the bosses. The support gems that we want here are Persistence so it can last longer on the boss. Then we’ve got Heightened Curse for a 25% increase in magnitude. And Lastly, Focused Curse for a 30% reduction in the delay of whenever you’re applying the curse.

Lastly to finish off our ability kit here is Herald of Ash and Overwhelming Presence. Herald of Ash is your main mapping aura. What triggers Herald of Ash is whenever you overkill something.

Build Mechanics and Support Gems

So whenever you hit them with a Resonating Shield and then Bone Shatter. Bone Shatter is going to overkill the first two three enemies and then everything else is going to explode because of Herald of Ash. Pretty cool stuff. The support gems that we want here is Precision because we need 30% extra accuracy so we can be able to hit more often our Bone Shatters. Then we have Cannibalism for 2% maximum life recovery whenever Herald of Ash is on. Then we have Warm-blooded for 50% less freeze duration whenever we’re doing mapping.

And lastly, we’ve got Overwhelming Presence, which is a utility-based aura. What this is going to help you do is be able to stun your enemies a little bit easier. The support gems that we want here is Vitality. Once again, regenerate 1% of maximum life. Then we have Herbalism for 30% more effectiveness of the life last that we’re using. And then Coolheaded for 50% less ignite on us. But now that you know every single ability, it’s time to look at the rotation mapping. All you do is just spam Resonating Shield. Whenever you notice that a lot of the enemies are primed for stun, once again, you’re looking for those yellowish orangey orbs on the enemy. Whenever you see a lot of those, you just hit them with Bone Shatter and everything is actually going to explode.

The crucial part of this build is understanding how to do bosses. So the rotation looks like this. You want to drop Solar Orb so we can be able to generate some Rage once we’re on top of it. Then we’re going to use Flame Ability on the boss, which is our curse, so we can lower their resistances even more. Then we’re going to do Resonating Shield a couple of times until we notice that we broke their armor or we are ready for the heavy stun. Whenever that happens, which is going to be in the first 5 to 8 seconds of the boss encounter, then you will simply pop both of your cries and then Sunder the boss.

Now, moving on to the gear. First thing that you need to know is that we’re running two weapon sets. One and two. One is for mapping, two is for bossing. It’s very, very important to understand that because the passive tree, just for me to open it up a little bit, there’s green nodes, there’s red nodes, and there’s yellow nodes. The red ones are the weapon set one. The green ones are the weapon set, too. So, starting off with the prime gear that you’re going to wear on both sets.

Gearing Up for Success

You’re going to wear on both sets.

Gearing Up for Battle

We’ve got the helmet looking something like this. You want to get as much strength as you possibly can so you can be able to support all the hammers and the maces that we’re going to be equipping. But, my helmet has a lot of strength, some intelligence as well to support that chaos resistance and maximum life.

Then, we’ve got the gloves again, strength on the runes. We’ve got armor. We have fire flat, cold flat, maximum life, plus two levels to all skills, melee skills. That’s very, very crucial to have. And then some extra strength.

Then the boots are very similar. 35 movement speed of course, maximum life, fire resistance, cold resistance, and then stun threshold in here as well. You want as much fire res as you possibly can because don’t forget that we do have coal stoker which means that fire resistance is also going to grant cold and lightning resistance of 50% value. So the more fire resistance you have the more cold and lightning you’re going to have as well.

The belt that you can go for this is pretty cheap by the way and it gives you 50% fire resistance which is big but to be completely honest it’s not the most optimal belt for you to go for. The best option would be to go for ingenuity belt or head hunters for mapping. Those two would do a better job. And the reason why is because this belt would be Really, really good if I went forged in flame, but that’s a completely different build. And the reason why I didn’t change it is because I need this for my resistances. Whenever I upgrade my gear later on and I can match my resistance capsu uh without this belt, I’m going to move on to ingenuity.

Now, the rings that I have, we’ve got fire flat, we’ve got increased fire, we’ve got increased lightning damage, we’ve got strength, dexterity, and chaos resistance as much as we can. So, we can try and cap that as well.

And the second ring is a breach ring. This is a little bit more of an expensive one. I’ve got 51 fire resistance here, maximum life, a lot of intelligence that I needed for my gems and some other stuff, so I don’t need to go intelligent nodes on my passive tree. The ring is going to help that out. and flat fire and a lot of increased fire damage. Really good ring. I could probably do much better, but this is what I could afford at the time.

The amulet we’re going for here has a maximum life, has spirit, a ton of spirit, so we can be able to use all of those support gems like cannibalism, vitality, herbalism, plus our two auras. And then we have plus two level of all melee skills. Very, very crucial here.

Optimizing Gear for Increased Damage and Survivability

And we have some more strength, of course. Now, the anointment that I’m going for is lay siege. What lay siege does, it simply gives us 1% increased damage for every 1% chance to block that we have. And trust me, passive tree is going to help you with chance of block. And our shields are also going to provide us with chance to block. So, if for example, the shield has 40%, guess what? Lay siege means that you’re going to get 40% increased damage.

Now the chest is white. Obviously with a Smith of Katava we are going for a more custom-made chest piece body armor. The one that you should focus on to find is ornate plate. You want to make sure that the quality is 20% and you want to try and find three sockets if you can afford it. Two is fine, but three would be ideal for the corruption to work with three sockets. And what we’re going to go for here is the runes maximum life. We need as much life as we possibly can so we can survive things. And what we’re going to put on the chest are these four nodes here that we’re going to cover in a second whenever we go onto the passive tree.

Next, we’ve got the weapons. So, we’re going to start with the shield. The first shield that I’m rocking here is feathered fortress. I really like the shield and it’s very cheap for you to find it as well. It has a lot of strength. It has a lot of dexterity that helps out with accuracy. It helps out with our gems and stuff. It has decent fire and coal resistance. And there’s no movement speed penalty while shield is raised, which means resonating shield. That’s what we do. We raise the shield, we hit it so we can deal damage. So every single time it raises the shield, usually you will have a movement penalty.

And then the uh the mace that I’m using here is a two-handed mace, of course, with as high physical damage as we possibly can get and as many levels of all melee skills as we can get here, plus strength. And if you can get some life regeneration of sorts, our weapon set, too, this is our bossing set. This shield costs 30 divine.

Optimizing Warrior Build Equipment

It’s essential to carefully consider your shield choice, especially if warrior is your primary focus. A rare shield with high block chance, around 40%, is a valuable find. Look for additional stats like fire and chaos resistance, along with strength. This combination ensures your shield supports your warrior build effectively. The shield’s versatility makes it a top choice for various warrior builds. It offers 26% block chance, boosting damage with lay siege, and provides solid armor and resistances. The standout feature is its unique mod: granting 1% fire damage per 1% block chance.

This shield synergizes exceptionally well with specific passive tree nodes, potentially yielding significant damage boosts. Combining this shield with suitable weapons like a hammer mace, rich in fire damage and attack speed, further enhances your overall DPS. Pay attention to melee skill levels on weapons for increased effectiveness.

Turning to the passive tree, selecting the right ascendancy path is crucial. Starting with coal stoker for fire resistance boosts, then progressing to heat of the forge for additional benefits like the aura from detonate dead. Equipping the ornate plate with beneficial mods such as leather binding for life regeneration and molten symbol for converting physical damage to fire complements your focus on fire resistance and tankiness.

Enhancing Warrior Skills with Passive Tree

Delving into the passive tree offers opportunities to amplify your warrior’s capabilities. Choosing the right nodes can significantly impact your performance. By strategically allocating points, you can further optimize your build for increased damage output, survivability, and overall effectiveness. Remember to balance offensive and defensive nodes to create a well-rounded warrior build that excels in various combat scenarios. Experimentation and fine-tuning your passive tree are key to creating a powerful and resilient warrior character in your game.

Important Passive Tree Nodes

And then we have 20% increased strength and 15% increase maximum life. Now, regarding the remaining of the tree, I’m going to do my best to simplify things and make it as quick as possible. However, bear in mind this is not a meta build, so you do need to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it the way that we’re doing it if you want to actually succeed with this build because yeah, the bossing is not amazing on warrior and offmeta builds.

So there are six very very important nodes that we need to rush and we need to care about throughout the passive tree. Blood magic. This is the node that prevents us from using mana. We don’t have mana. We don’t care about mana. The second most important node here is the one below it right here called avatar or fire. 75% of damage converted to fire damage. And we deal no non-fire damage. As I said before, this build is focused heavily on fire damage. Third most important uh node right here is going to be brute.

Thank you for diving into our guide! Discover our exceptional POE2 boosting services and elevate your gaming experience with our top-tier boosts.