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In Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.5, a unique Warrior build combining Blistering Bond, Self-Ignite, and Oil Grenade is emerging. It transforms the previously support-oriented and board-flooding Oil Grenade into a core damage dealer, leveraging the defensive mechanics of Smith of Kitava to achieve a unique map-clearing playstyle of self-ignition and burning while moving.

Core Mechanics

The cornerstone of this Oil Grenade Warrior build is Blistering Bond Ruby Ring. Its core affixes are Fire Damage also Contributes to Bleeding Magnitude and Bleeding you inflict deals Fire Damage instead of Physical Damage.

This means that fire damage amplifies the intensity of both ignite and bleeding damage ailments, allowing Herald of Ash and Herald of Blood to function simultaneously, resulting in overlapping fire spread and bleeding propagation during map clearing.

It's important to note that Avatar of Fire conflicts with Blistering Bond. Avatar of Fire converts all damage into fire damage, preventing the character from dealing physical damage and thus preventing bleeding from triggering. Therefore, it's not recommended to choose Avatar of Fire when equipping Blistering Bond. This build requires maintaining a certain level of physical damage to sustain bleeding triggers, while maximizing the benefits of fire damage through other means.

Self-Ignite mechanism is achieved through Molten Carapace and Self-Immolation passive. When the character is ignited, Self-Immolation reflects the ignition back to themselves, while Molten Carapace provides 50% increased Armor and 50% increased Damage while ignited.

Smith of Kitava's passive ascendancy skill, Heatproofing, renders the character unaffected by damaging ailments. This means that self-ignition doesn't cause actual damage but continuously triggers the buffs from ignition.

Core Equipment Configuration

Chest Armor

The chest armor must be of normal rarity, as Smith's Masterwork only allows normal rarity chest armor. Prioritize Ornate Plate or similar high-armor base materials. For affixes, prioritize% increased Armour and Life to further enhance overall defense and increase life pool.

Weapons

Siege Crossbow is the primary weapon in this build, with core affixes including:

• +3 to Level of all Grenade Skills: Significantly increases the base damage of Oil Grenade.
• Additional Grenade: Increases projectile count, significantly improving the coverage and clearing efficiency of Oil Grenade.
• High Physical Damage: Provides a foundation for damage conversion and overall output.
• Elemental Damage: Further enhances the fire damage system.

Among these, additional grenade is particularly important, directly impacting the coverage and clearing feel of Oil Grenade.

Jewellery

Blistering Bond Ruby Ring is the core equipment of this build. Its unique mechanics determine the synergy between Fire Damage and Bleed, forming the foundation of the entire damage system.

Xoph's Blood Amber Amulet further enhances the fire damage system. Its effect is: Enemies in your Presence have Elemental Exposure, while also providing life and fire resistance, making it valuable for both offense and defense. Combined with Blistering Bond, this further amplifies the benefits of fire damage to the overall DOT system.

Since this Oil Grenade Warrior build has high requirements for Blistering Bond, Xoph's Blood, and Siege Crossbow, the investment in PoE 2 currency needs to be carefully planned during its development. It is recommended to prioritize acquiring core mechanic gear rather than aiming for perfect affixes on all gear from the start.

Skill Configuration

Main Skill: Oil Grenade

In Path of Exile 2, the basic effect of Oil Grenade is to throw a grenade, which spreads oil and ignites the ground upon explosion. In this build, it simultaneously serves as the ignition source, the bleed trigger source, and the main damage source. The recommended support gem configuration is as follows:

• Bleed III: 100% chance to inflict Bleed, a prerequisite for Blistering Bond to convert into fire Bleed.
• Ignite III: Increases ignition chance and ignition damage.
• Fire Attunement: Converts a portion of physical damage into fire damage, increasing the base fire damage value.
• Encroaching Ground: Expands the burning ground area of ​​the fuel bomb.
• Sealing Flame II: Increases ignition damage.

Support Skills: Herald of Ash and Herald of Blood

Herald of Ash provides fire damage spread and overflow, while Herald of Blood allows the bleed effect to spread between enemies. Together with Bursting Plague and Poison III, they can create a chain of continuous damage spread. It's important to note that the spread of Bleed from Herald of Blood is also affected by the fire conversion of Blistering Bond; what actually spreads is fire Bleed.

Defensive and Buff Skills

• Wind Dancer: Provides dodge to armor conversion and a small amount of rage generation. Combined with Iron Reflexes: converts all dodge into armor.
• Blasphemy combined with Elemental Weakness: Reduces the elemental resistance of nearby enemies.
• Precision and Vitality: Provide hit chance and health regeneration.

In-Game Performance

This build is extremely simple to use in practice. Upon entering the map, simply throw Oil Grenade towards the enemy. The oil will automatically ignite the ground upon landing. Ignited enemies will trigger the Blistering Bond's fire bleeding effect, while Herald of Ash will spread the ignition to surrounding enemies. Because Heatproofing grants the character immunity to damaging ailment, self-ignition does not cause actual health loss, and Molten Carapace's 50% increased damage when ignited effect remains active.

The character's survivability comes from multiple stacks of damage reduction. Once geared up, the character can easily withstand significant damage and weave through enemy hordes, melting enemies one by one with continuous fire bleed and ignition.

Deck Positioning and Future Prospects

From a positioning perspective, this build is suitable for players who enjoy sustained damage scaling and tank-style pushes. Its map clearing efficiency is considerable once geared up, while single-target damage against bosses relies on the stacking of Oil Grenade and the synergy of fire resistance reduction. Compared to traditional Warrior melee builds, it sacrifices some burst damage for stronger sustained output and survivability.

This Oil Grenade Warrior build is already playable in the current PoE 2 0.5.5, but its true potential may be realized in 1.0. According to leaked information, Xoph's Blood and Infernoclasp Plate Belt will receive significant buffs in 1.0, and the Blistering Bond mechanics are expected to be further adjusted. Additionally, the addition of sword-type weapons in version 1.0 may provide this build with more weapon options, no longer limited to crossbows.

For players who want to familiarize themselves with Blistering Bond and Smith of Kitava synergy before PoE 2 1.0, this build is a template worth investing time in. With subsequent patches adjusting related unique and ascendancy nodes, its strength is likely to increase further.

In Path of Exile (whether the 1 or 2), map rewards are closely tied to how much you invest into a strategy. Some strategies require a significant amount of currency to set up, but they can also generate far greater returns than other methods.

In PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5, Azmeri Spirit Strongbox is one such strategy. It takes a long time to prepare, and sometimes you may even need to abandon an entire map. However, once a Sacred Spirit appears in the map, you can see an enormous burst of loot.

Azmeri Spirit Strongbox Core

Simply put, this strategy starts by having Spirits possess Strongboxes. Every time a possessed Strongbox is opened, Spirits can continue multiplying. However, this chain reaction only occurs when a Sacred Spirit appears.

Azmeri Spirits appear as small floating points of light throughout the map. They are usually yellow, purple, or blue, while rarer orange Spirits can occasionally appear. You only need to look for an orange Spirit. If there is none, simply abandon the map.

There are two types of Sacred Spirits:

• Spirit of the Cunning Fox: Increases monster rarity.
• Spirit of the Spring Hare: Allows possessed monsters to revive after death and further generate Spirit-related effects.

To make Spirits multiply indefinitely, you need the Atlas Keystone Passive Sacred Sap. Its second option causes monsters possessed by a Sacred Spirit to also be possessed by another random Spirit.

Therefore, once a Strongbox is possessed by a Spirit, the monsters that emerge from it will also carry the same Azmeri Spirit while simultaneously gaining additional random Spirits.

Because of Spring Hare's effect, possessed monsters have a 50% chance to revive. Every time they revive, Sacred Sap adds more Spirits to them again. Quickened Flow node then gives you a chance to release Spirits when you kill them.

Cunning Fox increases monster rarity. If you take Hilda's Call of the Spirits Atlas Passive, possessed Rare monsters release Spirits when they die. Therefore, once a Strongbox is possessed by Fox, Rare monsters can become Unique monsters, and killing them releases Spirits, allowing the chain reaction to continue.

Your goal is simply to create as many Strongboxes as possible and have each Strongbox possessed by as many Spirits as possible. When you open these Strongboxes, Divine Orbs will seemingly cover your entire screen.

Tablet Setup

You need to use three Expedition Tablets and one Overseer Tablet, or 4 Overseer Tablets.

The goal when choosing Tablet modifiers is to maximize the number of Strongboxes and Azmeri Spirits. The number of Azmeri Spirits determines the chance of encountering a Sacred Spirit, while the number of Strongboxes determines how much you can earn after hitting a Sacred Spirit.

Required modifiers for Expedition Tablets:

• Expeditions contain 2 buried Strongboxes;
• Map has increased chance to contain Azmeri Spirits.

Required modifiers for Overseer Tablets:

• Map contains 2 additional Azmeri Spirits.

When using three Expedition Tablets, two Expeditions will appear in the map. When using four Tablets in City Biome, the effects of Tablet modifiers are increased by 54%.

In simple terms, this setup gives you two Expeditions in a single map, with around nine Strongboxes from each Expedition, for approximately 18 Strongboxes in total. You will also get a good number of Azmeri Spirits.

Map Selection

For maps, you need to use Tier 15 eight-mod maps and maximize monster rarity as much as possible.

Only Rare and Unique monsters can be possessed by Spirits. Higher monster rarity makes the chain reaction smoother, allowing more monsters to revive, gain additional random Spirits, and generate more loot.

Without sufficiently high monster rarity, the chain reaction may fail to run smoothly even after a Sacred Spirit appears, eventually forcing you to abandon the map. Therefore, try to use maps with close to 100% increased monster rarity.

Ezomyte City

City Biome is chosen to gain stronger Tablet modifier effects and allow the use of four Tablets. Grass Biome is selected because it increases the chance for Azmeri Spirits to become Sacred Spirits by around 50%.

The advantage of Ezomyte City is that it provides the benefits of both City Biome and Grass Biome, which is why this strategy is mainly run there.

Map Enhancements

For map enhancements, you can choose 200% Delirium, or Sacred Bloom Wildwood. Both methods work well. 200% Delirium provides better loot and additional rewards from Delirium, although it is more complicated to run compared with Wildwood.

Master of the Atlas

For Master of the Atlas, both Doryani and Hilda can work. However, if your build is particularly powerful, Hilda is the better fit. If you are more concerned about surviving, choose Doryani.

If you choose Doryani, Spring Hare will be more useful because the map becomes Irradiated, granting higher monster rarity and other modifiers while making monster effects stronger. However, encountering Cunning Fox may force you to abandon the map.

If you choose Hilda, both Spirits are worth running because Fox chain reaction depends on Hilda's Call of the Spirits node.

Preparation

Since each map can drop a large amount of PoE2 currency, the game may become extremely laggy if your hardware is not particularly strong. You will also need a strict Loot Filter to hide lower-value currency items, such as Exalted Orbs, otherwise your inventory will fill up very quickly.

You also need to use currency to roll Strongboxes yourself and prepare Cryptic Keys and Omens of the Hunt. Cryptic Keys allow you to open a Strongbox one additional time, while Omens of the Hunt are used to release Spirits when opening Strongboxes.

This strategy offers extremely high returns and can even cause severe performance issues. However, if you can run it successfully in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5, each map can potentially generate dozens or even hundreds of Divine Orbs.

In Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, Ancestral Warrior Totem Shaman is a popular choice that combines tankiness with the ability to complete all content.

This totem build, centered around Sunder as its core damage dealer, has an extremely low skill ceiling. Simply place totems and keep moving to easily handle most combat scenarios, making it suitable for challenging Grand Expedition, high Delirium maps, Pinnacle bosses, and various endgame content such as Simulacrum.

Starting Budget and Hard Gear Requirements

This build requires approximately 100 Divine Orbs to start. It's not recommended to force this transition before you have sufficient resources. The core reason lies in the mandatory requirement for two function-bound pieces of equipment:

Redflare Conduit Anchorite Garb

Must carry Corruption affix: Gain a Power Charge every second if you haven't lost Power Charges recently. This chest piece is the starting point for the entire build's energy recharge cycle; without this corruption affix, the entire cycle cannot be initiated.

Flush Crucible Diamond

must include a variant of Resonance keystone passive skill. This keystone passive converts gained Power Charge into Endurance Charge, a necessary resource for Ancestral Warrior Totem to function.

Besides the two bound pieces of equipment mentioned above, weapon quality is equally crucial. This build's damage primarily comes from gem level and the weapon's base physical damage; therefore, it is recommended to prioritize high physical DPS two-handed hammer weapons.

Furthermore, unique attributes such as Rite of Passage, The Fall of the Axe, and Kalandra's Touch can further enhance overall strength, but are not absolutely necessary; players can gradually acquire them based on their own circumstances.

If your own resources are insufficient but wish to experience the full gameplay of this build as soon as possible, you can buy PoE 2 currency to quickly replenish resources to obtain equipment with specific attributes that meet the build's requirements, thereby completing the core configuration faster.

Core Mechanics Analysis

Power Charge - Endurance Charge Loop

The core operating logic of this build is a stable Charge conversion chain. Redflare Conduit Anchorite Garb continuously generates Power Charge through Corruption affix, while the Resonance Keystone converts the acquired Power Charge into Endurance Charge.

Ancestral Warrior Totem relies on Endurance Charge to be summoned. This loop ensures a continuous supply of totem summoning resources and is the foundation of the build.

Totem Summoning and Health Regeneration

Another important survival mechanism for this build is the health regeneration provided by Totem summoning. Each Totem summon restores a significant amount of health to the character. Therefore, in environments where continuous damage is taken, frequent Totem summoning not only maintains damage output but also serves as an important means of healing.

Rage Stacking

Shaman Ascendancy provides the necessary Rage acquisition and utilization capabilities for this build.

Through the Mana Regeneration → Rage Generation conversion mechanism provided by Ascendancy, characters can continuously acquire Rage using Mana Regeneration, thus reducing their reliance on Eternal Rage buff.

A large amount of Rage not only increases damage output but also synergize with other defensive mechanisms, allowing Rage to serve both offensive and defensive purposes.

Defense System

Ancestral Warrior Totem Shaman, through high-armor shields and stacking the "increased defenses from equipped shield" affix, can easily achieve nearly 90% physical damage reduction. Shaman Ascendancy also provides additional defensive stacks, combined with the life regeneration from Totem summons, giving the character extremely high survivability in high-intensity combat.

0.5.5 Patch Key Updates

Patch 0.5.5 brings two significant improvements to this build, further enhancing its strength.

Jiquani's Soul Core of Quaking

This is a new Soul Core added in PoE 2 0.5.5, providing +1 level to all Slam Skill Gems.

Since our core damage skill, Sunder, is a Slam skill, and this build benefits greatly from skill gems, Jiquani's Soul Core of Quaking directly boosts Sunder's damage output.

It is recommended to socket it together with Perfect Iron Rune. Together, they form a crucial enhancement combination for this build's weapon slots; Jiquani's Soul Core of Quaking provides the gem level, while Perfect Iron Rune further enhances the weapon's base stats and damage output.

Atziri's Soul Core of Vitality

This Soul Core provides a 1% increased Maximum Life for each Corrupted Item Equipped. This means that when the character equips as many corrupted items as possible, they not only benefit from the corruption affix itself but also gain a significant maximum life bonus.

For gear that has already incurred significant investment and for which you don't want to directly use Vaal Orbs and risk random outcomes, consider using Vaal Infusers for corruption. These infusers don't cause corruption on the first use, but subsequent uses have a high probability of inflicting corruption, and they don't interfere with existing affixes on the gear, making them a relatively controllable corruption method.

Skill Gem Configuration

Main DPS

Ancestral Warrior Totem is the core gem of this build, paired with Sunder as the primary slam skill, handling the majority of the damage output.

For secondary gems, adjustments can be made based on the final gear and skill gem levels. Common configurations include Urgent Totems III, Heft, Heavy Swing, and Rigwald's Ferocity, primarily focusing on increasing the totem's attack speed, single-hit damage, and overall DPS.

Secondary DPS

Shockwave Totem is mainly used in boss fights, responsible for applying additional AoE and DoT, and providing some supplementary single-target damage. When facing a single boss, generally placing Shockwave Totem in advance is sufficient to apply damage; there's no need to continuously summon large numbers of Totem like a main DPS build.

Defense and Buffs

Magma Barrier is primarily used to provide additional block chance, further enhancing the character's defensive capabilities. Use Time of Need when clearing maps to provide health regeneration and manage curses.

In scenarios requiring higher DPS, such as Pinnacle boss fights and Trials of Sekhemas, Berserk can be used for stronger burst damage.

Overall, Ancestral Warrior Totem Shaman build in Path of Exile 2 0.5.5 is more suitable for players who already have sufficient resources and want to experience a high-survivability totem playstyle. Its advantages lie in its relatively simple operation, flexible output methods, and good adaptability to various endgame content.

However, the high start-up cost and core gear requirements also mean it's not suitable as a low-budget progression build. After completing the core equipment and mechanics setup, you can gradually upgrade your weapons, equipment, and gem levels according to your budget to achieve a more stable endgame experience.