PoE 3.25 Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain Build

It is without a doubt that melee builds are king in PoE 3.25. This is due to the sweeping adjustments GGG implemented in the SoK expansion. Because of this, it begs the question: Are spell-based builds still good in this league? Well, the answer is yes!

The one we are going to talk about today is a build that does not require you to press numerous buttons while mapping or bossing.

Did we pique your interest? If so, we encourage you to read further. This is our ultimate build guide for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

So, what makes the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain special? This build is quite tanky and is able to survive even the most damaging hits in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. It utilizes the Cast When Stunned support gem to automatically cast multiple spells, including the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction!

This transfigured version of Detonate Dead has a slower cast time, less damage effectiveness, and higher mana cost than the original. However, its main draw is that it causes smaller explosions when it detonates a nearby corpse, which synergizes perfectly well with Hinekora, Death's Fury from the Chieftain ascendancy.

To get stunned consistently for CWS to work well, you have to wear a unique ring called Valyrium. This Moonstone Ring has a unique effect where your stun threshold is based on energy shield instead of life.

In addition, you will get "The Agnostic" keystone passive. This essentially removes all of the energy shield you have, so you get stunned immediately after taking a hit from the enemy.

To improve your survivability, you are going to use Immutable Force and Bloodnotch. The former ensures that you do not feel the effects of stun while mapping or bossing, while the latter recovers some of your HP when you get stunned.

Although Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction remains unchanged in Patch 3.25, the same cannot be said for Desecrate. In fact, the said spell got nerfed significantly in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion.

The main thing you have to take note of is that Desecrate now only spawns corpses that have a level of 80. Previously, the spell was able to spawn level 100 corpses, which meant that they had more life. Remember, more monster life equals higher damage output from Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction.

Be that as it may, this build is still quite fun to play despite the nerf.

Playstyle

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is billed as an "autobomber" precisely because your main skills are automatically cast when you are stunned. Hence, you just get hit by the enemy for everything to take place.

Activate Righteous Fire whenever you enter a new map or area. This helps you with map clear. As soon as you get surrounded by monsters that attack you at the same time, your Cast When Stunned Support kicks in, which automatically activates several spells. These include Frost Bomb, Enfeeble, Purifying Flame, Desecrate, and Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction.

When fighting against bosses, activate Vaal Breach for a huge ignite explosion.

Ascendancy

The only ascendancy class that is perfect for this build is the Chieftain. The Chieftain is great because it utilizes the fire element in various ways, unlike any other ascendancy class in Path of Exile.

Hinekora, Death's Fury is the best node for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain simply because it synergizes really well with your primary skills This basically makes your enemies explode, dealing a whopping 500% of their maximum life as fire damage to nearby monsters. This helps map-clear speeds immensely and can be devastating even for bosses.

Tasalio, Cleansing Water makes it so much easier for you to cap your elemental resistances. All you really need to worry about is upping your fire resistance so that your cold and lightning resistances will be sorted out!

Ramako, Sun's Light reduces the fire resistance of nearby enemies against damage over time by 20% while you are stationary. You count as being "stationary" if you do not move for a couple of seconds.

To round out your ascendancy nodes, you are going to take Valako, Storm's Embrace. This essentially makes your maximum cold and lightning resistances equal to your maximum fire resistance. For this reason, you just think about raising your maximum fire elemental resistance to 90% and your other elemental resistances will follow.

Gear

Since Magic Find is no longer as potent as it once was, we will no longer recommend items like Greed's Embrace and Sadima's Touch. This gives you the freedom to choose other pieces of gear that can help the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain.

Weapon

The main weapon for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is a crafted weapon using Oscillating Sceptre as the crafting base. The reason why you should pick the Oscillating Sceptre is due to its implicit modifier — Elemental Overload. To put it simply, this gives a considerable boost to your elemental damage, so why not include it in the build, right?

That said, secure an Oscillating Sceptre with an item level of 82. Then, spam the weapon with Deafening Essence of Misery (Cast Speed) until you get T1 damage over time multiplier. The rest of the instructions to craft the endgame oscillating sceptre can be found in our ultimate crafting guide.

For best results, do not use a fractured base so that you can use a Warlord's Exalted Orb for a chance to obtain the mod: "Damage Penetrates % Fire Resistance."

Furthermore, do not forget to bench-craft "Gain 8% of Fire Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" for good measure.

For the budget version, get an ilvl 82+ Opal Sceptre and spam it with Scorched Fossils until you get "+ 1 to Level of All Fire Spell Skill Gems" along with other useful modifiers.

In case you have not noticed, GGG has improved the base critical strike chance of all weapon bases in Patch 3.25. For the Oscillating Sceptre, in particular, its base crit chance has been buffed from 6.30% to 7.60%!

The Opal Sceptre saw a huge improvement because its base critical strike chance is now set to 8% (up from 6.50% previously).

Shield

The Dawnbreaker is one of the best shields for this build mainly due to its unique effect, where up to 20% of the physical/cold/lightning damage you take is converted to fire damage.

You can even take things a step further by purchasing a Dawnbreaker with the "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" corrupted implicit modifier from the trade website.

Another cheap shield you can get is the Rise of the Phoenix. This unique shield grants an additional 5% to your maximum fire resistance, allowing you to reach 90% quite easily. Besides that, you gain a temporary boost in fire resistance, movement speed, and ignite avoidance when you are below 50% of life, which on this build, is all of the time.

Svalinn, a new shield that was introduced in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, should be considered as an endgame option for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain.

What this shield does is it makes your block chance "Lucky," meaning, you are more likely to block incoming attacks or spells than not.

As an added benefit, Svalinn enables you to trigger a socketed elemental spell when you block. With this effect, you can put Molten Shell and have the shield use that whenever you block incoming damage.

Body Armor

With the removal of the item quantity mod on Greed's Embrace, we can no longer recommend the said unique body armor in PoE 3.25.

This makes the Cloak of the Flame the most ideal body armor for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain. This thing converts 40% of the physical damage you take to fire damage, which should make you incredibly tanky given your insanely high fire resistance.

Helmet

You are going to craft your own helmet no matter what version of the build you are using. Do not worry, the process of crafting it is not as complicated and expensive as the weapon. For the endgame version, grab an Elder-influenced Giantslayer Helmet and use that as your base for crafting. This is one of the new armor base types introduced by GGG in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion.

Anyway, you can go to our crafting guide to learn the steps on how to craft the endgame helmet for RF. Although this build is not focused on improving Righteous Fire damage, the modifiers on the crafted helmet will work wonders for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain.

Early on, you could obtain any armor-based helmet, such as the Giantslayer Helmet or Conqueror’s Helmet, and spam it with any essence that you like.

Gloves

You are going to equip a crafted pair of gloves with modifiers that you still need for your character. Take this opportunity to address any issues you may have with the build, including elemental resistance, life, or DEX/INT.

Once you are done with the explicit modifiers, do not forget to use Eldritch Currencies to get fire exposure and ignite proliferation.

Boots

A good pair of boots with the Onslaught Mod is really nice for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide for the full instructions.

Amulet

Since the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain has plenty of life recoup mods, Defiance of Destiny is definitely a pretty good choice. Even though this unique amulet got a sizable nerf in Patch 3.25, it still works wonders for the build from a survival standpoint.

The Defiance of Destiny might be a bit out of reach early on. Fortunately, you can craft your own amulet using the Turquoise Amulet (DEX/INT) as the base.

The main mod you are looking for is the "+1 to Level of All Fire Skill Gems" prefix. Spam Harvest Reforge Fire until you get it along with other useful modifiers, such as elemental resistance, DEX, and INT.

If you still have an open prefix, you can bench-craft "16% Increased Area Damage, 12% Increased Area of Effect."

No matter what amulet you end up choosing, anoint it with Vampirism (Amber Oil, Teal Oil, Violet Oil) for that 12% life recoup and 3% life on kill.

Rings

Valyrium is a core component of the build. This ring has a unique effect that states: "Stun Threshold is based on Energy Shield Instead of Life." Because you have "The Agnostic" keystone passive allocated, your energy shield is virtually non-existent, so you will get stunned when you're hit by the enemy; provided that you have this ring on, of course.

For the other slot, you can craft a rare ring using the Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance) or Opal Ring (Elemental Damage) as a base. If you need DEX or INT, spam the ring with Essence of Sorrow or Essence of Spite, respectively. Do this until you get another suffix that benefits your character.

After that, lock your suffixes and then use a Veiled Orb. Before unveiling, head to the Crafting Bench and put "Adds # to # Fore damage, Adds # to # Cold Damage." This is to block the particular mod from appearing on the list.

Talk to Jun and unveil. You are looking for the mod, "+(55-60) to Maximum Life, Regenerate 5.3 Mana per Second." When you've successfully obtained the mod, just bench-craft "17% Increased Damage" and you are done with the explicit modifiers.

To finish the crafting project, use Fertile Catalysts to improve the life mods on the ring.

Belt

During the league start, you can wear the Immortal Flesh. This unique belt provides a ton of life and life regeneration at the cost of a small reduction to your elemental resistances. Spam it with Fertile Catalysts to improve the life modifiers on the belt.

In the endgame, your goal is to obtain the Mageblood. This is so that you can have permanent uptime of your magic utility flasks. Yes, this is a chase item and is, therefore, quite expensive. But, every PoE currency you spend on this thing is definitely worth it!

Now, if you are struggling to cap your resistances, you could wear a Stygian Vise to address any issues that you may have. This belt also allows you to put an Abyssal Jewel that grants life, chaos resistance, and attributes, among many other stats.

Flasks

• Ruby Flask
• Quartz Flask
• Bismuth Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Bottled Faith/Progenesis/Oriath's End

Flask Mods

• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses (of the Owl)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• Regenerate 3% of Life per Second During Effect (of the Order, bench-craft)
• Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler (Prefix, 70% Increased Effect, only when using Mageblood)

Jewels

Getting stunned in a fast-paced action RPG like Path of Exile is no fun at all. That is why you probably have qualms about creating the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain for this very reason. But, worry not! Grinding Gear Games won't put in some mechanic if there is no way to counter it.

There are a couple of jewels that you must use in order to address the stuns. The first is the Immutable Force. This unique Crimson Jewel grants up to 1,000% increased stun and block recovery. Aim to get one with at least 961% recovery so that the stun animation will just be one frame. In other words, you will barely notice getting stunned by the enemy!

To complement the Immutable Force and prevent you from dying, the second jewel you must put on the passive tree is the Bloodnotch. This allows you to recover a sizable portion of your HP when you take stunning hits.

Although not really mandatory for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain, the build can certainly benefit from the Rational Doctrine unique Cobalt Jewel. Due to its "synthesized" nature, it can roll IIR as an implicit modifier. What's more, since Strength is your highest stat on this build, you will create Consecrated Ground while you are stationary, with its effects lingering for several seconds when you move out of it. Consecrated Ground is helpful as it grants life regeneration. It also reduces the effect of curses on you while you are within its radius.

Now for some cluster jewels. Get a couple of Large Cluster Jewels (Fire Damage) and use Harvest Reforge Fire to obtain the following notable passive skills:

• Prismatic Heart
• +10% to All Elemental Resistances
• 30% Increased Elemental Damage
• Burning Bright
• 25% Increased Burning Damage
• 8% Increased Area of Effect
• Widespread Destruction
• 6% Increased Area of Effect
• 20% Increased Elemental Damage

Aside from a couple of Large Cluster Jewels, you should utilize at least one Medium Cluster Jewel (burning damage) as well. Use Harvest Reforge Chaos until you get Student of Decay and Fan the Flames.

• Student of Decay
• 25% Increased Damage Over Time
• +13% to Chaos Resistance
• Fan the Flames
• Ignites You Inflict Spread to Other Enemies within a Radius of 1.5 Meters

If you have a spare jewel socket, you can grab a Watcher’s Eye with any of the following modifiers:

• Malevolence
• +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Damaging Ailments You Inflict Deal Damage % Faster
• % Increased Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield

Gems

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain uses some interesting combination of gems to make the build work. Let's start with the main gem setup, shall we?

Body Armor

• Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction
• Cast When Stunned Support
• Flame Surge of Combusting
• Awakened Burning Damage
• Cruelty Support
• Combustion Support

Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction is your main damage dealer. When triggered by Cast When Stunned Support, it causes nearby corpses to explode, dealing fire damage equal to a percentage of their maximum life. This transfigured version of Detonate Dead ensures that everything is blown to bits thanks to the smaller secondary explosions that occur after the first one.

Flame Surge of Combusting is another fire spell that is triggered by Cast When Stunned Support. This Transfigured Gem creates a surge of flame that ignites enemies within its area of effect. What's more, ignited enemies take a considerable amount of fire damage per second of inflicted ignite.

Awakened Burning Damage increases the damage of Flame Surge. At max level, this support gem grants +1 to the level of Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction and Flame Surge of Combusting, thus improving their effects.

Enemies that are within the area of effect of Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction are hit by the explosion. You want to capitalize on that by including the Cruelty support gem as well. This grants up to 40% more damage over time depending on the damage of the initial explosion.

Combustion Support is a pretty powerful support gem, particularly in this setup. It not only causes enemies to ignite, but ignited enemies suffer from -10% fire resistance as well.

Helmet

• Righteous Fire
• Awakened Elemental Focus
• Awakened Swift Affliction
• Lifetap

Righteous Fire has two purposes for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain. First, activating the skill grants more spell damage, which further improves the potency of your other spells.

On top of that, Righteous Fire can help you kill enemies, supplying you with corpses that you can explode with DDCR.

Lifetap is used differently here compared to other builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. You see, this support gem is not meant to replace mana when casting spells; it is actually there to put a "Duration" tag on Righteous Fire, thereby allowing you to link it with Awakened Swift Affliction for more damage over time.

Awakened Elemental Focus prevents Righteous Fire from causing enemies to ignite. However, that is fine because you only really need it to boost your elemental damage significantly.

Gloves

• Frost Bomb (lvl 1)
• Enfeeble
• Phase Run
• Cast When Stunned Support

Part of your damage comes from damage over time via Ignite. Frost Bomb creates a crystal that pulses for a short duration. Enemies that are hit by the pulses have their life regeneration reduced significantly, making them so much easier to kill.

You can actually use any curse spell you like. However, Enfeeble is nice because it makes affected enemies deal less damage to you, thus improving your survivability in a way. You could replace this with Flammability or Punishment if you like.

Phase Run allows you to pass through enemies due to the Phasing buff. It also boosts your movement speed considerably for a couple of seconds at gem level 20.

Boots

• Purifying Flame
• Desecrate
• Spell Cascade
• Cast When Stunned Support

Desecrate enables you to conjure corpses that you can explode with Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction. Take note that this has been nerfed in Patch 3.25, but it still provides tremendous value to the build.

Spell Cascade is a good support gem that causes Desecrate to summon a lot of corpses on a single cast. This is actually a DPS increase considering that you have a lot of corpses at your disposal without having to wait for things to ramp up.

Purifying Flame creates a Consecrated Ground that reduces the effect of curses on you, as well as provides you with some life regeneration. Additionally, it damages enemies that pass through the divine flames.

Weapon

• Malevolence
• Eternal Blessing Support
• Frostblink

You are only going to use one aura for this build and that is Malevolence. When activated, you gain 20% more damage over time at gem level 20. The effect of this aura is amplified due to Eternal Blessing Support. Moreover, this support gem does not need you to reserve life when using Malevolence.

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain has some leeway when it comes to movement skills. We just went with Frostblink because it enables you to get out of harm's way easily. Plus, its cooldown is significantly reduced, especially if you are completely surrounded.

Shield

• Vaal Breach
• Petrified Blood
• Tempest Shield

Vaal Breach is a spell that summons plenty of monsters. Killing them off with Righteous Fire and using Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction thereafter allows you to damage bosses and tougher enemies with a huge Ignite explosion!

Tempest Shield and Petrified Blood are there to improve your survivability immensely. The former makes you immune to Shock and grants increased spell block chance. The latter, on the other hand, prevents you from dying even after receiving a devastating hit.

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Ngamahu Warrior
• 5% Increased Fire Damage
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Shaman
• 0.3% Life Regeneration per Second
• Tattoo of the Rongokurai Warrior
• 6% Increased Armor
• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller
• +3% to Chaos Resistance
• Tattoo of the Rongokurai Turtle
• 5% Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

Passive Tree

POB

Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain

Final Thoughts

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is still amazing in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League.

This build is regarded as an "autobomber" simply because it utilizes Cast When Stunned Support to trigger multiple spells at once.

Thanks to the various mechanics at play here, the build is able to take on even the hardest bosses in the game without breaking a sweat.

Since Magic Find is rather inconsistent in the SoK expansion, we have opted to simplify the gearing options and not include any MF items.

Anyway, if you want a build that is comfortable to play no matter what content you intend to consume in PoE 3.25, then definitely give the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain a try!

With that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Impressively tanky

+Simple playstyle

+Utilizes Cast When Stunned Support to Great Effect

+Can withstand hits even from the most formidable enemies in Path of Exile

+Chieftain Ascendancy and the transfigured version of Detonate Dead are a perfect match indeed

+Still good in Patch 3.25

CONS

-Sacrifices a ring slot to make the build work

-Build is not meant for those who want a more active style of play

-Magic Find no longer viable