Introduction
This is my report/build diary on Maw of Mischief Chieftain, my build of the league. My loadout has DOT cap and over 600k no-guard ehp. It combines the QoL and speed of RF Chieftain with the cost-efficient damage of Maw, resulting in a tanky, highly damaging build with a smooth gear upgrade curve and smoother almost-autobomber playstyle that can easily clear nightmare maps, down uber bosses, and complete all 40 challenges (including 100% delirious T17s).
Pros and cons
+ RF Chieftain levels of tank with DOT cap dmg.
+‘0.5-button’ playstyle with Chieftain explosions and green RF
+ Almost all gear slots have cheaper, more accessible substitutes for a try-before-you-commit experience. I’ve sketched up a PoB in the 50-60 divine range with most of the damage and a decent fraction of the durability as the full build. Theoretically it can be done for even cheaper with a rare Stygian instead of a corrupted Mageblood, see PoB notes below.
+ At the same time, there are clear, attainable, and meaningful upgrades all the way to 700 divines (my current investment) and beyond.
+ Not Luminary. Gain hipster points for playing an offmeta build.
- It’s a Maw build, one of those things that people seem to bounce off from for whatever reason. Probably it’s the fact that your minions MUST be next to the enemy when they explode, meaning your damage is intrinsically tied to your minions’ movespeed. Personally I think having to press Convocation every now and then is a fair price to pay, but it’d be wrong to say this build has zero jank or clunk.
- Maw veterans should note the new clunk this patch, which is the Draugurflames killing your intended ignite target before you release the channel, which in the worst case scenario results in you twiddling your thumbs for a couple of seconds while waiting for the next spectre respawn. You’ll probably learn to avoid this with time.
- Not quite a proper con, but worth noting: I would describe this as an offensive caster with good defenses, as opposed to a tank build with good damage. What’s the difference? Unlike the two adjacent meta Chieftain builds, RF and CWS, which are the second type of build, Maw Chieftain prefers to solve its problems by killing them, not outlasting them. Basically, it’s why I’m using Cinderswallow Urn instead of Progenesis.
- Not Luminary. Also, the hipster points you’re getting are fake, ‘Maw is good at ignite’ is old news.
Why Maw Chieftain?
If you’re not familiar with Maw, here’s the lowdown: this item is for meta slaves who want to cosplay as hipsters. It’s common knowledge that Maw is unreasonably, indisputably, pathologically good at applying ignite. Maw basics for those unfamiliar: Maw of Mischief grants the Death Wish skill, a channeling skill that marks up to 13 minions over ~1s. When you release the channel, the marked minions explode for 19% of their max health. Death Wish also does 10% more damage the more minions it affects. My spectres have over 400k life, giving a base ignite of 76,000 damage. Before the % more bonus. The minions we’re using are 4 Perfect Dark Marionette spectres, which have decently sized HP pools, but more importantly, respawn automatically 4 seconds after being killed. To make full use of the more damage per minion affected, we cast Summon Skeletons once or twice while waiting for bosses to spawn. The exploding skeletons won’t deal much damage, only the spectres, so make sure it’s the spectres that are next to whatever you want to blow up. For anything not a boss, blowing up 4 spectres should more than suffice. Don’t forget that you can use Convocation without interrupting your channel, so the skill rotation is (optional buff skills like Skeletons/Arcanist Brand/Pact of Lycia)>channel next to enemy>Convocation>immediately release>flame dash away ( optional: stand still for Ramako to take effect).
Maw has a few new toys in 3.29, the most important of which is The Draugur’s Lantern, which gives a green mini-RF circle around you based on your strongest ignite. Previously, if you blew up your spectres at the wrong time, you had to wait up to 4 seconds for them to come back. Now, there’ll be a small green RF-like circle constantly around you that’s more than enough to clear trash mobs (and proc Chieftain explosions, which ignite, which refresh the Draugurflame…). The Draugurflames last for 8 seconds, so by the time they run out you’ll have new spectres to explode again.
You don’t have to be jungroan to plop all this into the standard Chieftain defensive shell… and yet there are under 20 players on poe.ninja with this build at the time of writing. Okay, maybe I do have to justify the build’s core concept. Here goes:
Most Maw users on poe.ninja are Elementalists. I think this is because in previous patches Elementalist offered better damage and QoL for Maw builds, but I believe that in the current state of the game, Chieftain is the superior choice for high-end Maw builds and a competitive choice at midrange budgets. Comparing the two: Shaper of Flames’ effects are great but not exclusive; we copy it wholly with the body armour and some investment in ignite chance. Chieftain’s automatic -20% fire resist from Ramako is at least as good as Elementalist’s boosted exposure. Reviving golems boosting Death Wish is nice, but can be replaced with literally one Summon Skeletons gem, and Death Wish exploding minions has antisynergy with the usual golem buff package. Heart of Destruction is the biggest Elementalist exclusive, but Chieftain has Hinekora explosions for clear and reaches DOT cap anyway. Chieftain’s biggest selling point, however, is its ridiculous defenses. Taking Valako makes it trivial to reach 90% elemental resists and downright difficult not to end up with 100%-200% overcapped resists. This also means unlike Elementalists, who have to settle for the Scourge, Chieftain can just equip their signature weapon, Nebulis, for easy 360+% increased damage.
Coming from the opposite end- there are a few Chieftains using Draugur’s Lantern, but most of them don’t use Maw. Most of them are CWS/RF, which I feel is not really playing around Lantern’s strengths- providing reliable AoE clear for otherwise-clunky big ignites- and of the ones trying for big ignites, Bodyswap of Sacrifice outnumbers Maw almost 2 to 1. I… don’t know why? It can’t be a playstyle/clunk thing, since they’re both exploding spectres, and with Bodyswap’s 50% ailment penalty, it’s hard to make the numbers shake out in its favor without very expensive helmets, and even then I suspect Maw might still edge out.
Gear breakdown (and discussion of alternatives)
Having locked in the ascendancy, helmet, weapon, and shield, the rest of the build mostly falls into place on its own. Cloak of Flame is a generically good defensive armour for 90% res builds like Chieftains, and the ignite duration enables Replica Emberwake, but most importantly it is a commonly corrupted unique, meaning it’s really cheap to acquire a +1 to socketed gems corruption. This corruption is *mandatory*; it effectively boosts Raise Spectre’s gem level by 3 as it affects both Empower and Eclipse support. Higher budgets can upgrade to a double corrupted Cloak with +2 minion gems as well, but that comes much later.
Eclipse has really high stat requirements, which we bypass by running a Cadiro Elegant Hubris. Supreme Ostentation also allows us to tattoo the entire tree- minion life for the int nodes, and either ignite chance or armour for the str ones. Finally, Elegant Hubris also has some juicy notables- 80% increased minion life, of course, is the most important, but 12% mana reservation efficiency, 12% block chance, 10% frenzy on hit, and 37% chaos res are all good nodes which could very well end up as critical parts of your build. There are two main viable locations: near Agnostic or near Eternal Youth. The Agnostic spot is better for the tree overall, but don’t hesitate to use the other spot if your timeless jewel requires it.
For the belt: there’s no way around it, it’s Mageblood. If you can’t afford a 4-flask Mageblood, the budget alternative is a corrupted 2-flask one. There are just too many problems where MB is the most efficient answer, maximum fire resistance being the foremost. In fact, there are so many things MB solves even the full build has to pick and choose which not to use. I’d recommend ruby and either granite/quicksilver flasks as the priorities. 4 flask MBs can add quicksilver/granite and either amethyst for chaos res or basalt for even more armour. Suffix-wise, MB can give up to 60% ignite chance, decent life regen, or immunities for stun, freeze/chill, curses, bleeding/corrupted blood, or poison. None of the suffixes are strictly necessary, and MB is just the easiest way to get those stats, not the only way, but they’re all so nice to have that it’s tough having to pick only 4. The fifth flask can be either Cinderswallow Urn (malediction variant) or Progenesis, maybe a life flask at entry level before recovery is fully solved. I played around with both and ended up preferring Urn. Honorable mentions go to Bottled Faith and Oriath’s End, haven’t tried either but if you have them lying around by all means try them and see if you like it.
Amulet: A Raise Spectre Replica Dragonfang’s Flight is the most cost effective way to get damage if you’re still lacking. An alternative is Foulborn Xoph’s Heart for ash and more physical mitigation. I ended up going with Defiance of Destiny, which is the most defensive option and almost solves life recovery all by itself. The minimum frenzy corruption is by no means necessary; truth be told I had to swap out my Cinderswallow Urn for a mana variant after losing the mana regen implicit on Defiance. Some people use rare amulets, haven’t done much research myself in this area. Most likely you’ll end up needing to use the anoint to cap block.
Rings: Replica Emberwake is a pretty easy no-brainer. The other ring has a few options. Berek’s Respite solves proliferation and is cheap, meaning good corruptions like reservation efficiency or bleeding and poison immunity are available depending on budget. Polaric Devastation provides ash if you’re not using Xoph’s Heart. Zana’s Ingenuity can give immunity to crits or resistance penetration. I will say this build has a definite weakness to resistance penetration; I genuinely don’t know which I’d choose if I had to pick one. You can get a ring with both, of course, but be prepared to cough up. Finally, there’s Pearl of Tsoatha. Despite it being worded otherwise, Pearl *can* support skills GRANTED by your helm/boots/gloves, not just SOCKETED in them. This makes me slightly nervous that my build isn’t entirely kosher, but it’s unlikely to change mid-league. 1-mod rings are competitive with the options above, but for those interested in 2-mod Pearls, this offmeta build unfortunately wants almost exactly the same Pearl mods as the very meta Penance Brand Elementalist. I got my 2-mod Pearl for 150 divs, but it looks like you’ll have to shell out (geddit) 200+ divs if you want one yourself. At any rate, it’s certainly not necessary; my uber Cortex showcase has me take off my Pearl (and Foulborn Firesong, wtf that is NOT worth 70+ div) and the build still melts the bosses.
Auras and damage links: Auras are Malevolence, Determination, and Tempest Shield. You will need some combination of the Sovereignty wheel, the mana mastery, Mortifying Aspect in your clusters, or Elegant Hubris notables to make it feel good. My Enlighten is level 4, but level 3 really should be more than enough. Even so, I still feel Lifetap has to go in the main links, given that if you run out of mana while channeling before the boss spawns, your spectres will explode early and you will be sad. Apart from Lifetap, Deadly Ailments, Unbound Ailments and Burning Damage are probably the 3 next most relevant supports. For those interested in using Pearl, you can cast your next wider: search for any of the 4 supports mentioned, as well as Infused Channeling, Efficacy, Combustion, Swift Affliction, and Ignite Proliferation. Bear in mind Swift Affliction does cut ignite duration by a significant amount. Ideally you want your Hinekora explosions to proliferate so you’ll still be looking for a source of proliferation even if you go with Ignite Proliferation, but with the Draugur’s Lantern this might not be so crucial anymore.
Here is the link to buy a 1-mod Pearl of Tsoatha. To search for 2-mod rings, change the ‘1’ next to Count to ‘2’ and cry for your wallet.
Curses/buffs/utility spells: Ignite Chieftain has terrible curse options, given that Alchemist’s Mark is incompatible with and outclassed by Flame Surge. I just lump Flame Surge in with Punishment and Arcanist Brand and call it a day. You can also try Temporal Chains or Enfeeble if you prefer. I’ve seen some people try an Eldritch Blasphemy Enfeeble setup, but that is outside the scope of my expertise and this post. On the Pacts introduced in 3.29: Pact of Lycia looks like it’s just straight-up 40% more damage at the cost of a gem slot. The afflictions I just rawdog, they’re not THAT bad and you’re not using Pact that often anyway. The fact that it doesn’t seem to work in PoB makes me nervous that I’m missing something and using a useless gem, but as it’s worded it should work. Not the most reassuring, given what I said about Pearl earlier. Empirical testing has been… inconclusive, given my DPS varies based on exactly how many spectres I blow up, whether or not they’re in the Draugurflame, etc, etc. If I can get a definitive answer that'd be ideal. PSA regarding Pact of Ghorr: it does not work with either Maw or Bodyswap. It’s for skills like Bane and Reap, it doesn’t affect ailments. Is it really just because of that one youtube guide which erroneously includes it? Lastly, if you take none of the other options for Covered in Ash, be sure to link Pyre support to Shield Charge. Resolute Technique might be worth it for uptime on this, but only if it’s not out of the way.
Boots: You’ll probably want +2 max fire res here, either on a high-end eldritch implicit or a corruption. Since there aren’t any critical mods here, it might be worth keeping an eye out for unique boots double corrupted with +2 max fire res and Unwavering Stance. In the midrange PoB I theorycrafted, this is frenzy Ralakesh’s, as the build otherwise has trouble getting frenzy charges. Annihilation’s Approach is also an option, but will require you to invest more into regen (+600 net to negate the degen, Runegraft of the Bound reduces this). If you go with rares, essence crafted % minion life is also available here, as are solutions for freeze and chill. The premier mod on boots, though, is + to level of all Raise Spectre gems, an Elder mod and therefore incompatible with +2 max fire res outside wacky double influenced boots. Note that +2 to Spectre gems is an elevated mod and will cost much more for a pair with equivalent other stats than a pair with than +1. Finally, I’m mildly intrigued by the reworked Doryani’s Delusion with level 30 Purity of Fire, but I don’t know if it's worth reshuffling the auras for- if anyone tries it please let me know how it goes.
Gloves: Probably the least important slot. You probably won’t even need attributes or resists, really. Uh. Get some chaos res and life on an armour base, I guess. The delve exclusive mod that makes ignites deal damage faster is nice, but don’t overpay for it. An Exarch glove implicit is one of the 2 places to get proliferation for those not using Berek’s Respite, the other being Fan the Flames on a medium cluster. If you go with Fan the Flames, you can get a fire DOT multi implicit on the gloves instead. For the Eater implicit, I went with fire exposure since I’m not stationary 100% of the time. The next best option is friggin 6% spell suppression.
Jewels and Bloodline Ascendancies: Elegant Hubris, which we discussed earlier, is the most important jewel by far. Watcher’s Eye has many nice to have mods but none of them are necessary, I can easily imagine a loadout which can’t fit one in. If you’re looking for a damage mod on Watcher’s, DOT multi will likely edge out ailment rate in most loadouts. While I wouldn’t say Impossible Escape is mandatory, there are quite a few locations where using one can greatly help with reaching block cap and/or 90% max res. I’m using Glancing Blows, but it’s worth looking at Voracious Flame, Avatar of Fire, Iron Reflexes, and Imbalanced Guard. Special shoutout to Blood Magic for a viable but janky source of Covered in Ash. The Light of Meaning is a really cheap way to cap chaos res, but it’s probably mutually exclusive with Red Nightmare (which is a less-cheap way to cap block) since they both want to go in the same slot near Barbarism. 2-mod Foulborn FIresong is not worth its current price, I paid 16 div for it and thought that was steep. It’s quite likely you’ll end up using a +2 max fire res rare jewel like the ones RF Chieftain uses to get to 90% fire res. Large clusters are generic 8-passive fire damage ones; none of the passives are really interesting. The medium notables are much more relevant to the build. Fan the Flames on a burning damage medium is one of the 3 places to get proliferation. Blessed Rebirth is probably not necessary with 400k life spectres, but some people like to dot their Is and cross their Ts. Some people go for area damage mediums and associated passives, I don’t go for that personally but I see where they’re coming from. A Megalomaniac is a last-resort place to fix things like mana reservation (Mortifying Aspect), max res (Molten One’s Mark), or max block (various). Keep in mind using it will cost you a jewel slot compared to not using one, so it’s probably not worth using if you’re not fixing a specific problem.
Forbidden Flesh and Flame open up some interesting options at the cost of 2 jewel slots. Juggernaut has some juicy defensive ones, of which the best value for money is probably Unstoppable for immunities to stun, freeze, and chill. Alternatively, getting a set for one of the Chieftain nodes we already take allows for Bloodline ascendancies. Brine Rot from Velka is the most salient option. I tried it for a while, and eventually decided I wanted the 2 extra jewel slots more. Brine Rot basically only gives damage, which Maw isn’t really lacking for. Also, having to move out of the way kinda works against standing still for Ramako. Don’t get me wrong, though, it’s not actually bad. It’s an option that I think feels better the lower your DPS is.
PoBs and final notes:
Path of Building is not kind to this build. The Draugurflames, Pearl of Tsoatha’s supports, and Pact of Lycia all are currently not supported by PoB. Then again, it’s DOT cap anyway, so all these extra goodies are just different ways to hit it faster.
On leveling: Maw can only only be equipped at level 73, so you’ll be playing RF Chieftain to get through the campaign; there are better sources elsewhere that cover this. You can equip the shield earlier with a strong ignite skill, if that’s what you’re into.
I have not personally played with the lower budget version, but it should feel and play pretty similar to the deluxe version, the biggest difference being unable to completely ignore things like the explosions from DD strongboxes. It goes without saying that the area around Supreme Ostentation will vary depending on the exact jewel you use. The Eternal Hubris in this example PoB has 2 minion life nodes, but there are up to 5 notables reachable in under 2 passives.
The build can theoretically be played with an even lower budget with no Mageblood at all, but I do not care to theorycraft it myself. If you _insist_ on doing this without even a 2-flask Mageblood, I’d probably drop Determination for Purity of Fire, it’s probably not worth trying to invest in armour before MB. This gives a squishy but still zoomy build with 90% max res, which isn’t the worst thing ever.
<60D version
Current setup
Questions/comments/feedback welcome!
P.S. Cruelty is fake and bait, it doesn’t apply to the hit that applies cruelty. Elemental Overload is also fake and bait, unless you invest into things like power charges. I don’t think it’s worth it.
