Level 91 Vaal Righteous Fire Chieftain^3.24

Notes

Build created by Wrecker of Days on PoE forum: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3467875
Copied from https://poeplanner.com/builds/595488 for use with PoB. Copy/Paste accuracy not guaranteed

DISCLAIMER:
- This is my personal build that I use with my day-to-day gameplay. This build will always display the base version of the build, so it won't be updated if I get an epic drop and need to rearrange/replace skills and such. But if I feel like the base version of the build needs something tweaked, it'll be tweaked without warning. (Such as swapping an aura or something.) (I will do my best not to make any changes mid-league.) 
- (If you see any "hidden" gems, that's just a PoE Planner thing. There are no hidden gems in PoE. Some skills/supports provide extra abilities. For example, Predator Support provides the user with the Signal Prey skill. It's one gem/support. PoE Planner just has those "skills within a skill" as separate skills, for whatever their reasons are.)

ALL OF MY BUILDS ARE DESIGNED TO BE:
  - SSF HC savvy.
    - So that means, defence before offence, life before glory, /deaths = 0 before damage.
  - As Stress-Free (to me) as possible, which means:
    - Having only ONE MAIN BUTTON/skill to press, with (maybe) an occasional secondary button/skill. 
    - Having a defensive setup that ALLOWS SLOW REACTION TIME or slow character movement. We should be able to zone out, take damage, and react slowly with our flasks, to easily survive.
    - ITEM FREEDOM. I like Path of Exile to be a game of discovery and excitement. I want every item that I ID to have the potential to be better than what I have equipped. I also don't like "needing" a specific fancy mod or item for my build to actually function. So, I design my builds to not require specific gear or mods. I think of gear as a bonus to the build. (Obviously, we want good gear, but we won't be crippled until we get it. SSF, am I right?)

TAKE NOTICE:
- Pay attention to the skills and notables when you're allocating them to the build. It's on YOU to remember the requirements of all of your selections as you'll be the one equipping, modifying, and playing the build. TAKE YOUR TIME within the game to get used to the differences of each addition as they come. The build's details are easier to remember that way.

Everything else, besides what's mentioned below, is pretty straightforward. I don't think anything else needs a comment. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten anything. I hope the build suits you and that you have a great time!

RETURNING PLAYERS:
- The only thing that changed was the addition of both Call to Arms and Automation Support. Last league's setup had a couple of empty gem sockets so nothing was removed as a result.

BUILD SUMMARY:
- This is a Righteous Fire Chieftain build.
- RF and Searing Bond are our main skills.
  - Offence:
    - Burning Fire Damage Over Time (not Ignite) from Righteous Fire and Searing Bond.
  - Defence (all before equipping items):
    - 88% Elemental Resists.
    - Lots of Physical Damage mitigation.
    - Big Armour investment.
    - Freeze immune.
    - Lots of Life Regen.
    - Lots of automatic defensive skills.

BUTTONS:
- Searing Bond
- Flasks are up to you.
- That's it! Everything else is automatic. Easy peasy.

BUILD SPECIFIC THINGS TO KNOW:
Damage Over Time:
- Minor Notes on Damage Over Time:
  - "Penetration" only applies to Hits which neither of our skills do. Our skills only Burn, without Hitting or Igniting.
    - Igniting and Burning are almost the same thing, but they aren't. Igniting only happens from Hits and is the process where a Hit creates a Burn. A Hit Ignites, starting a Burn. Our skills don't Hit, which means we don't Ignite. We only burn. (Burn is a Damage Over Time damage type.) So, don't invest in Ignite.
  - Investing into "Spell Damage" only applies to Searing Bond (as stated on the skill), but not RF. Increasing Spell Levels does apply to both RF and Searing Bond.
  - "Adding" damage only applies to Hits. So "adding spell damage" doesn't help this build.

Mana:
- We have a lot of perks linked to trigger gems. They cost a lot of mana.
- As a result, Clarity is a "must" so that we can regen our mana as fast as possible. The trigger gems cost so much mana that we use Lifetap for Searing Bond.

Levelling:
- When I level this build as a league-starter, I go south first, grabbing every node as I come to it. I then start making my way north, again grabbing every node along the way, without skipping anything.
- Levelling will be pretty slow. The Chief doesn't have many spells available to it through the early parts of the campaign. And, as we aren't investing in any accuracy, Attacks will only last you so long. Also, most of our damage nodes are at the end of the tree.
- So, be patient. It'll be worth it, but it'll be slow for the first half of the campaign. 
- For skills, go with Spells if you can. (They are mana hogs though.) Fireball, Holy Flame Totem, Flame Wall, and Purifying Flame are some Chief skills I like early on.
- Obviously, you can start using Searing Bond after completing Act 1.
- Reservation Clusters:
  - We have 2 reservation clusters to acquire. Fortunately, our skills that reserve mana aren't necessary. Well, Determination kinda is, but besides that, the others aren't. Of course, the skills are very helpful, but the build doesn't "need" them. So, pick and choose the path you wish to level with. If you choose not to rush the reservation clusters, you'll have a much more balanced levelling experience, but you'll have to pick and choose which skills that reserve mana are on or off, depending on the gear you're getting (until you have both reservation clusters). 

Sustaining RF:
- Without items, we should be able to easily sustain RF without flasks or help by around level 55(?)ish. 
- The Tasalio and Valako ascendancy keystones would be my suggestions for your first two ascendancy choices. It makes for easy gearing and survivability.
- You'll be able to sustain RF with help long before level 55(ish) if you use other skills that give life regen that aren't included in the build. Items and flasks will obviously help too.

Items:
- Multitasking Fire Resist:
  - The Tasalio and Valako ascendancy keystones allow us to only focus on Fire Resist to fully cap all of our elemental resists (not Chaos resist). 
    - Our Fire Resist cap, without gear will be 88%. (Meaning our Cold and Lightning Resist will also be at 88%.) 
    - Once we get 296% Fire Resist, we won't need to have any Cold or Lightning resist modifiers on our items.
      - 296% may seem like a lot, but without skills we have 100% Fire Resist from the tree/Ascendancy. With skills, we gain another 67%. That leaves us only needing 129% which can easily be done on 3 or 4 items. Considering we normally want resist on all our gear, only needing fire resist on 3 or 4 pieces of gear is easily doable.
  - Also, every % of Fire Resist we have that's over the Fire Resist cap, gives us 1 flat life regen. That REALLY adds up. As we're already aiming to have 148% (minimum) Fire Resist over the cap, we'll automatically be gaining at least 148 flat life regen a second (which ends up being a lot more with the passive tree we have). 
    - So over-stacking Fire Resist is great for this build!

The Passive Tree:
- The Passive Tree takes you to character level 91.
- We need 98 Dex. for our green gems but we only get 44 Dex. from the tree.
- We need 155 Int. for our blue gems but we only get 144 Int. from the tree.
- So, we'll need to make up 54 Dex. and 11 Int.
  - Don't be shy to use the +30 Dex/Int. nodes until you find some gear you love (like an amulet) that makes up the difference.

I'd love to tell you where each gem unlocks for the build, but there's a character limit for this Notes section and I don't have the space. Good luck and have fun!