Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain - Path of Exile 3.24

No matter what league you are playing in, Magic Find builds will always have a home in Path of Exile. It is just the way the game is built, especially in the endgame.

However, with so many options out there, you might have a hard time looking for the best. While there are the usual names like the Lightning Arrow and Tornado Shot Deadeye, they are quite squishy. Unless you have a "hit first, hit hard" mentality, you are going to get killed with one devastating blow.

Wouldn't it be great if there is one that is built like a typical Magic Find character, except that it is tankier? Well, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is definitely a very strong contender!

If you are interested in learning how to create this character, then forge ahead! This is our comprehensive build guide for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain!

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. It utilizes the Cast When Stunned support gem to automatically cast Unearth and the build's bread and butter, 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.

Unearth, in this context, provides the corpses that can be used by Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction to blow your enemies to pieces!

Since both of the aforementioned skills are linked with Cast When Stunned Support, how do you actually get stunned to make this support gem work? There are a couple of mechanics at play here. First, you will take the Energy Shield Mastery that says: "Stun Threshold is Based on 60% of Your Energy Shield Instead of Life". Second, you allocate points to get "The Agnostic" - a keystone passive that essentially reduces your energy shield to zero. With these two combined, every hit that you take from the enemy will stun you 100% of the time!

In the previous league, there was an Energy Shield Mastery that stated “Stun Threshold is Based on 60% of Your Energy Shield Instead of Life.” This build used to rely on the said mastery to have a reliable way to get stunned in the process. However, this has been removed in the current league.

To get stunned consistently in the Necropolis League, you now have to wear the Valyrium. This Moonstone Ring has a unique effect where your stun threshold is based on energy shield instead of life. This is almost similar to the Energy Shield Mastery mentioned above, albeit much better.

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.

The issue with the new approach is that you’ll have to sacrifice one ring slot as a result. But, this is not a problem due to the sheer amount of damage this build is capable of.

Do not worry, you are still going to use Bloodnotch and Immutable Force, meaning, the build won’t feel clunky at all. Just make sure that the Immutable Force has at least 961% increased stun and block recovery so that you’ll barely notice anything.

This build is quite tanky because you take plenty of "Physical Damage taken as Fire Damage" and "Physical Damage Taken Recouped as Life" modifiers. Furthermore, you have the option of using Defiance of Destiny, which essentially recovers your life before you take damage!

We have also included a budget setup for the build that works in Patch 3.24, so if you want to try this out without the need for some expensive Magic Find gear, then read this build guide to completion!

Playstyle

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

With the removal of the Wildwood Ascendancies in the 3.24 Necropolis League, you now have to use Desecrate linked with Cast When Stunned Support to conjure up some corpses for your main skills. This is needed if you want to take on the pinnacle bosses in PoE without worrying about where to find some corpses to detonate.

On the budget version of the build, you can activate Righteous Fire to provide additional damage over time to deal with map monsters.

This build is great both for mapping and bossing. It is fun, tanky, and best of all, it is one of those "Magic Find" characters that can maximize loot explosions to a great degree!

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.

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

We have updated our build guide to include a budget version of the build, so that you can try it out without spending a ton of PoE currency. If you wish to enhance the build even further, there is the Magic Find version as well.

Weapon

The main weapon for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is a self-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.

Shield

The Dawnbreaker is definitely the best-in-slot 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 "8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" corrupted implicit modifier from the trade website.

A viable alternative to the Dawnbreaker 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.

Body Armor

For body armor, you have a couple of options. If you want to maximize your item quantity, you can equip Greed's Embrace. This is a typical body armor worn by Magic Find builds in Path of Exile primarily because it increases your item quantity and item rarity, thus boosting your chances of obtaining some sweet loot.

On the other hand, if you want more survivability, you can use the Cloak of Flame. This unique Scholar's Robe not only increases your fire resistance by up to 75%, but it also converts 40% of the physical damage you take as fire damage.

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. All you have to do is spam Deafening Essence of Envy (chaos resistance) on an ilvl 85+ Royal Burgonet until you get life, fire resistance, and item rarity.

Leave a prefix slot open so that you can bench craft the "8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" mod.

For the implicits, spam the Royal Burgonet with Grand Eldritch Ichors to obtain "7% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "12% of Physical Damage Taken Recouped as Life".

How about early on in the league? What should you wear? Well, you are still going to use an armor-based helmet, preferably the Royal Burgonet or Ezomyte Burgonet. Use Harvest Reforge Chaos or Essence of Greed until you get chaos resistance, life, and elemental resistance. Leave a prefix open so that you can bench-craft the “8% of Physical Damage Taken as Fire Damage” mod.

The implicit modifiers on the budget helmet are the same as the Magic Find version, though you will use Lesser or Greater Eldritch Ichors and Embers instead.

Gloves

Because the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is incredibly tanky, you just have to increase your item quantity wherever possible. That is why for the gloves, you are going to wear Sadima's Touch for that 10% IIQ. To take things up a notch, corrupt a pair of Sadima's Touch using a Vaal Orb for a chance to obtain the "+1 to Level of Socketed Gems" corrupted implicit.

Early on, grab some ilvl 82+ Goliath or Vaal Gauntlets and use Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Greed until you get elemental resistance, chaos resistance, and life. If you need DEX, spam the gloves with Essence of Sorrow, preferably Screaming/Shrieking for a higher yield. If you have an open prefix, bench-craft “28% Increased Damage During any Flask Effect.”

Once you are happy with the explicit modifiers, it is now time to turn your attention to the implicits. Spam the gloves with Eldritch Ichors until you get fire exposure on hit and Eldritch Embers for “Ignites You Inflict Spread to Other Enemies within # meters.”

Boots

Another equipment slot where you can roll IIQ is the boots. For this reason, you will wear a Magic Find staple, Goldwyrm.

The Goldwyrm can roll up to 20% IIQ. Not only that but it gives you a hefty amount of fire resistance and a little bit of movement speed as well.

If you are not playing the Magic Find version of the build, you can craft a pair of Onslaught Boots. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn how to craft this yourself.

The only difference here is the implicit modifiers. Spam the boots with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “% Increased Life Regeneration Rate” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “+% to Maximum Fire Resistance” or “% Increased Action Speed.”

Amulet

There are a couple of great options for the amulet slot. The first is Eyes of the Greatwolf, specifically with the mods, "% Increased Maximum Life" and "% Increased Quantity of Items Found".

If you favor more survivability because you want to take on the uber bosses in PoE, then you can go for Defiance of Destiny. As mentioned earlier in the build guide, this unique amulet recovers a huge chunk of your life before you take hits from the enemy.

Since the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain has plenty of life recoup mods, Defiance of Destiny is definitely a pretty good choice. With that said, it is up to you which one is more important; better loot or more survivability.

These unique amulets, while great in their own right, require you to spend a good amount of PoE currency to obtain. Fortunately, you can craft a good budget amulet using Harvest Reforge Fire. Use the Turquoise Amulet (DEX/INT) as a 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

Since the Energy Shield Mastery, where your stun threshold is based on 60% of your energy shield instead of life, has been removed in the 3.24 Necropolis League, you have to wear the Valyrium to compensate for this.

Valyrium 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.

On the budget version of the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain, 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.

For the Magic Find version, you can settle with Ventor’s Gamble on the other ring slot.

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!

Flasks

• Amethyst Flask
• Granite Flask
• Ruby Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Taste of Hate (Budget) or Gold Flask (Magic Find)
• Divination Distillate (for Magic Find)

Flask Mods

• 15% of Damage Taken from Hits is Leeched as Life (Bench Craft)
• Regenerate 3% of Life per Second (Bench Craft)
• 35% Chance to Freeze, Shock, and Ignite (of Infliction)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 30% Increased Rarity of Items Found (Bench Craft)
• Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler (Prefix, 70% Increased Effect)

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, do not worry. 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 968% 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.

Since some of the gems and items you are going to use on this build have steep stat requirements, you should get your hands on an Elegant Hubris that has commissioned coins to commemorate Caspiro. When inserted into a jewel socket on the passive tree, it transforms the nearest keystone into Supreme Ostentation. Allocating a point to this particular keystone passive essentially ignores the attribute requirements of the items you use.

Be sure to use the POB's "Find Timeless Jewel" feature so that you can purchase an Elegant Hubris with "Superiority" to avail of that "12% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills" node.

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:

• Cremator

  • 30% Increased Fire Damage
  • Ignited Enemies Killed by Your Hits Are Destroyed

• Prismatic Heart

  • +10% to All Elemental Resistances
  • 30% Increased Elemental Damage

• Burning Bright

  • 25% Increased Burning Damage
  • 8% Increased Area of Effect

The reason why you use two Large Cluster Jewels for this build is that it is difficult to roll Cremator and Corrosive Elements in one jewel. That is why one Large Cluster Jewel should have Cremator and the other must roll with Corrosive Elements.

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 can still fit one more jewel on your passive tree, then acquire a Watcher's Eye with the mods, "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage While Affected by Purity of Elements" and "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage While Affected by Purity of Fire" for even better damage mitigation!

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
• Awakened Swift Affliction
• Cruelty 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 is another fire spell that is triggered by Cast When Stunned Support. This creates a burning ground that deals fire damage over time to monsters that step on it.

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.

Awakened Swift Affliction deals more damage over time, which is pretty useful when you factor in the damage of the Flame Surge of Combusting.

Boots (Magic Find)

• Unearth
• Desecrate
• Enhance Support (lvl 4)
• Cast When Stunned Support

Unearth is a physical spell skill gem in Path of Exile that is responsible for creating corpses that can be used by Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction. When triggered by Cast When Stunned Support, Unearth fires piercing projectiles that spawn corpses when they land in a targeted direction.

What's interesting about the corpses spawned by Unearth is that they are level 85 Bone Archers. Moreover, they spawn with a 66% increased Maximum Life, which is huge as it factors into how much damage Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction can deal!

With the removal of the Warlock of the Mists secondary ascendancy class in Patch 3.24, you now replace GMP with Desecrate. This is to give you even more corpses that you can use when fighting against tough monsters or bosses.

If you are wondering why a level 4 Enhance Support gem is included in the setup, that is mainly to increase the gem quality of Unearth by 24%. This is so that the Bone Archer corpses will spawn with even more life!

Boots (Budget Version)

• Righteous Fire
• Elemental Focus
• Efficacy Support
• Burning Damage

Because you will be using Flame Surge of Combusting, which deals fire damage over time via Ignites, then you should also complement that by activating Righteous Fire. The support gems included in this setup just improve the damage of RF.

Gloves (Magic Find)

• Purity of Fire (lvl 21)
• Petrified Blood
• Arctic Armour
• Enlighten Support

A level 23 Purity of Fire is mandatory for the build. The reason why it is crucial for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain's success is that it grants plus five to Maximum Fire Resistance. This makes 90% fire res very achievable. If you can recall, Valako, Storm's Embrace from the Chieftain ascendancy makes your Maximum Cold and Lightning Resistances on par with your Maximum Fire Resistance. Therefore, it is imperative that you reach 90% on your fire resistance to bolster your defenses against elemental damage.

Blood Magic is an important keystone passive for the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain. Although it removes all of your mana, the said keystone does make your skills use life instead. For this reason, you are going to activate Petrified Blood as well. This is a buff that protects the lower half of your life, preventing you from dying if you ever take huge damage from the enemy. Petrified Blood works well with Blood Magic because the auras that you activate reduce your life to 50% anyway.

Because most of the physical damage you take is converted to fire damage, you will get huge benefits from activating Arctic Armour. At level 21, you take 21% less physical and fire damage from hits while you are not moving.

Enlighten Support is just there to reduce the reservation cost to activate all of these auras.

Helmet

• Purity of Elements
• Eternal Blessing Support
• Vitality
• Blood Rage

Purity of Elements is a nice aura that grants a considerable amount of elemental resistances and makes you immune to all elemental ailments when it's active. For this build, you are going to link Purity of Elements to Eternal Blessing Support so that this aura turns into one that you can activate when needed. Do not worry about the support gem's downside since you do not have any mana at all.

The next two gems should not be linked with Purity of Elements and Eternal Blessing. Vitality gives you a nice boost to your life regeneration, which is quite helpful in improving survivability

Blood Rage is a temporary buff that allows you to leech life from enemies. It provides an ancillary benefit where you have a chance of gaining Frenzy Charges on kill as well.

Weapon

• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks Support
• Frostblink

Shield Charge is your primary movement skill on this build. When linked to Faster Attacks Support, this skill becomes much smoother to use. Use this to move around the map as quickly as possible.

Whenever you need to slow enemies down a bit or if you reach a spot where you cannot use Shield Charge, then cast Frostblink.

Shield

• Void Sphere
• Frost Bomb
• Cast When Stunned Support

Void Sphere creates a zone that can hinder enemies. This enables you to easily line up some monsters for the kill. Frost Bomb is pretty amazing because it significantly reduces the life regeneration of those who get hit by its cold crystals. These gems are automatically activated using Cast When Stunned Support.

Secondary Ascendancy

While most builds in Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League gravitate towards the Wildwood Primalist in the endgame, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain veers off the beaten path by taking the Warlock of the Mists instead.

There are a couple of good reasons why Warlock of the Mists is great for this build. For one, you will take Choir of the Damned, which gives you the ability to cast Penance Mark. This is a curse that causes the affected target to spawn Phantasms when hit. These Phantasms can be eliminated, thus triggering Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction and sometimes even Hinekora, Death's Fury!

In addition, you will allocate points to take Sanguimancy. This passive works the same as Blood Magic, albeit it increases the life reservation efficiency of skills by 50%.

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Alternate Setup (two-handed weapon)

Final Thoughts

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain is an amazing build to use in Patch 3.23. It is built as a very tanky version of a typical Magic Find character in Path of Exile.

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.

So, if you are looking for an unorthodox Magic Find build in PoE, then definitely give the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Chieftain a spin!

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

PROS

+Very tanky version of a Magic Find build

+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

CONS

-Quite expensive to put up

-Requires a lot of unique items

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