PoE 2 Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava Build Guide [Patch 0.3.0] – The Third Edict

Ben Author

Created - 22.08.2025 Updated - 21.08.2025

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Do you want to try the new Smith of Kitava ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict, but you're not sure which skill to use? Well, that is why we are here! In this article, we are going to go over what makes the PoE 2 Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build tick and why you should try it soon in the Rise of the Abyssals League!

In the meantime, we have a wide selection of items that will make any Smith of Kitava build rise to the top. Be sure to visit our PoE 2 Store to ensure that you get the most out of your next build!

Why Play the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava?

Before the release of PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0, a lot of Warriors used Stampede and Hammer of the Gods to destroy their enemies. Although Stampede is powerful when it comes to decimating monsters, it still feels quite clunky to use, especially because you still cannot steer your character in the direction you want to go.

Rolling Slam is typically inserted into the Ancestral Warrior Totem as a way to aid you in combat. However, for this particular build, you are going to use Rolling Slam yourself to deal massive amounts of single-target damage.

For mapping, you are actually going to Leap Slam from one group of enemies to another. Leap Slam is such a powerful skill when boosted by the right support gems, which we will discuss later in this PoE 2 build guide.

Having said that, the vast majority of your damage is influenced by Avatar of Fire—a keystone passive that converts 75% of your damage to fire damage. Being able to deal fire damage to the enemy means that you can ignite them. Because of that, you not only deal direct damage via Leap Slam or Rolling Slam but you deal fire damage over time via Ignite as well.

When it comes to eliminating bosses, you have a choice between Perfect Strike and Hammer of the Gods (HoTG). For our version of the build, however, we have chosen HoTG since it is much easier to use for beginners and veterans alike. Perfect Strike is no slouch at all, particularly when you insert one of the new support gems in Patch 0.3.0.

Anyway, the new Smith of Kitava is the final ascendancy class for the Warrior in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. What separates this from the other ascendancy classes available to the Warrior is that the Smith of Kitava is arguably the tankiest hero in the game!

If you have played the original PoE before, the Smith of Kitava is quite similar to the Chieftain in that it's quite easy to cap elemental resistances. The combination of Coal Stoker and Forged in Flame allows you to focus only on improving fire resistance to satisfy both cold and lightning resistance as well.

Smith's Masterwork allows you to enhance body armor with normal rarity and imbue it with special modifiers that you cannot find anywhere else! You can virtually spend all of your ascendancy points on Smith's Masterwork if you want. However, you only have several points to work with since Coal Stoker and Forged in Flame are allocated in our version of the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict.

Having said that, here are the ascendancy nodes to take when playing this build:

1. Coal Stoker
2. Smith's Masterwork
   1. Kitavan Engraving
   2. Support Straps
   3. Molten Symbol
   4. Leather Bindings
3. Forged in Flame

Here are the ideal modifiers to look for when it comes to gearing the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava in Patch 0.3.0:

• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Added Fire Damage
• Adds Fire Damage to Attacks
• + to Level of All Melee Skills
• + to Fire Resistance
• + to Maximum Fire Resistance
• + to Armour
• Increased Armour
• Increased Physical Damage Reduction
• + to Maximum Life
• Increased Maximum Life

Playstyle

The Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava, for the most part, has a straightforward style of play in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. You are basically going to use Leap Slam for movement, as well as damaging map monsters you find along the way. The aftershocks that occur when you land can cause massive ignite explosions due to Avatar of Fire.

When fighting against rare monsters, you will utilize Rolling Slam. This skill deals a lot of damage and it can easily stun enemies. This allows you to cast Seismic Cry for even more damage via your next slam's aftershock!

During boss fights, drop a Shockwave Totem and perform Rolling Slams until the target is stunned. Cast both Infernal Cry and Seismic Cry, one after another, and then use Hammer of the Gods to deal a boatload of damage!

Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava Gear Recommendations

The gear for the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava is generally a lot cheaper compared to other builds. Still, we invite you to go to our PoE 2 store if you want to buy Divine Orbs or other forms of currency.

Weapon

Just like other Warrior Builds in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict, you will allocate the Giant's Blood keystone passive so that you can use a two-handed mace and a shield.

That said, grab a Sacred Maul that has a couple of physical damage mods, added fire damage, and that all-important "+ to Level of All Melee Skills." The last modifier that was mentioned can significantly improve your damage output, especially for Hammer of the Gods.

If you want to deal the most amount of damage possible, buy a two-handed mace with +7 to melee skills from our PoE 2 Store!

Shield

The shield you are going to use can improve your offense and defense. As to why it can boost your damage, that will be explained much later in the build guide.

Anyway, grab a Vaal Tower Shield that has increased block chance, life, and strength. If you can find one that also has additional physical damage reduction, then that would be even more awesome!

Having chaos resistance on the shield is nice because it is the only resistance modifier that does not increase when improving your fire resistance.

Body Armor

The modifiers that you can allocate from the Smith's Masterwork ascendancy node only function when you have normal body armor equipped. This means that this particular body armor must not contain any modifiers of its own whatsoever. You will know if a piece of armor is of Normal Rarity if it has a gray/white border or text.

With that said, a normal Ornate Plate is the ideal body armor for the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava because of its implicit modifier that grants up to 2.5% life regeneration per second when equipped.

Despite being devoid of any explicit modifiers, you can still use Armourer's Scraps and Artificer's Orbs to improve the quality of the body armor and add a couple of sockets, respectively. If you are ballsy, you can even corrupt it with a PoE 2 Vaal Orb in the hopes of getting a useful enchantment.

In case you are wondering, yes, you can add special mods via Smith's Masterwork even if the armor is corrupted.

Helmet

Unique items in Path of Exile 2 are quite powerful because even those that you can wear at a low level can still be viable in the endgame! A good example of that is The Hollow Mask, which provides chaos resistance and a whopping 15% additional physical damage reduction. For a level 5 unique helmet, that is actually pretty good!

The Deepest Tower is quite amazing for this build in the Rise of the Abyssals League. When you have it equipped, you can replace the Eternal Flame support gem on your Hammer of the Gods and replace it with Execute for 50% more damage!

For those who do not know how The Deepest Tower works, it basically treats nearby monsters as though they have less than 35% of their maximum health left. This is important because when enemies are in low life, you can take advantage of certain notable passive skills that only activate when the said condition is met.

Finishing Blows, for example, is a notable passive skill that increases your stun build-up and damage with hits against enemies that are on low life by 30% and 60%, respectively.

Now, if you are going to equip The Deepest Tower, remove Offensive Stance and that lone jewel socket to the right of the said notable passive skill. Remove the increased block chance node, as well as the Overheating Blow (and the small nodes connecting to it). Doing this should free up some passive skill points so that you can take Stars Aligned and Finishing Blows.

Do you want to buy The Deepest Tower? Head to our online shop today!

Although The Deepest Tower's power is unmatched, Thrillsteel is a viable alternative and one that we actually use on our version of the PoE 2 Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build.

Thrillsteel grants permanent Onslaught when equipped. The 20% increased skill speed it provides make Leap Slam and Rolling Slam feel less clunky to use.

If you can get a corrupted Thrillsteel that has two sockets, insert a couple of Bear Talismans for a 16% increased area of effect of your primary skills.

Gloves

When Avatar of Fire is allocated, you cannot deal any damage type other than fire damage. That is why it is important that you have "Adds Fire Damage to Attacks" wherever possible. Fortunately, you can have that modifier on the gloves!

The Vaal Mitts provide the highest amount of armor among other STR-based gloves in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. Besides fire damage to attacks, you might want to include "+2 to Level of All Melee Skills" as well.

Use this particular gear slot to increase fire resistance and chaos resistance too!

Boots

Having 35% increased movement speed is a top priority when shopping for the boots you are going to wear. Being able to move about faster makes the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava feel a lot smoother to play.

The increased rarity of items found is a modifier that has suffered severe diminishing returns since PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0 was released. Be that as it may, having some of it is still encouraged. Hence, get a pair of boots that has item rarity as well.

Amulet

Xoph's Blood is actually not bad. This unique amulet not only boosts your maximum life by 15% but enemies near you will also have their fire resistance reduced by 20% because of Fire Exposure.

The only reason why you will ultimately swap this is because you need a total of 145 Spirit for this build to work at its best. However, if you are still not able to secure your endgame rare amulet, you can stick to Xoph's Blood in the meantime.

Speaking of rare amulets, there are a few modifiers that you should look for. First, the amulet must have a total of 45 Spirit. For this reason, the Solar Amulet is the ideal base amulet to go for since it has up to 15 Spirit on the implicit mod, which means that you only need at least 30 on the explicit.

Second, a rare amulet can roll "+3 to Level of All Melee Skills." We highly recommend that you purchase this amulet because it can greatly improve the damage output of all your abilities.

Instill the "Acceleration" notable passive skill by using Distilled Fear, Distilled Envy, and Distilled Disgust (in that specific order). Acceleration improves the overall feel and function of your primary skills.

Rings

Thanks to Coal Stoker, you can simply raise your fire resistance as high as you can to cap your cold and lightning resistance. For this reason, you could use a couple of Ruby Rings for their fire resistance implicit mods.

However, we still recommend that you settle with a couple of Breach Rings in the end. The value they provide is just too hard to pass up, especially if you can get one with "Adds Fire Damage to Attacks" and "Increased Fire Damage."

Enhance the fire modifiers of the Breach Ring by using Xoph's Catalysts up to 40%.

Belt

The Infernoclasp is an affordable unique belt that could raise your maximum fire resistance by 5%. Make sure that when you buy the Infernoclasp, you get one that has three charm slots.

Charms

There are two charms that are non-negotiable. They are the Thawing Charm and Stone Charm. The former makes you immune to freezing, while the latter ensures that your enemies won't stun you for a brief period of time.

For the last charm slot, we recommend that you equip Beira's Anguish. This unique charm in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict allows you to ignite enemies, dealing damage equal to 500% of your maximum life. Since you have a pretty big health pool, you will get great value from Beira's Anguish!

The unique charm that can beat Beira's Anguish on the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava is Ngamahu's Chosen. This thing activates whenever you receive fire damage from a recent hit. When this happens, it grants 30 Rage for 30% more attack damage!

Flasks

You only really need a Life Flask because you will allocate Blood Magic on this build. This particular keystone passive removes all your mana, so you will use your HP when casting your primary skills.

Having said that, you want an Ultimate Life Flask that has “Increased Life Recovered, Removes 15% of Life Recovered from Mana When Used.” Why this specific mod and not “Increased Amount Recovered?” Because it can go as high as 100% (as opposed to just 65% for the other flask mod).

Once you have enough PoE 2 Currency, you should consider buying Olroth’s Resolve. This unique Life Flask provides an additional layer of defense. Although you are almost immortal, having added sources of damage mitigation is always welcome.

Jewels

This build can greatly benefit from a couple of unique jewels. Against the Darkness can roll fire resistance mods. If you are going to buy Against the Darkness, put this in the jewel socket near “Unbending” on the passive tree.

The other unique jewel is From Nothing. Get one that allows you to allocate passive skills near Unwavering Stance. From Nothing is only really useful when you also have The Deepest Tower equipped.

For the rest of the jewel sockets, populate them with jewels that have any of the following mods:

• +2% to Maximum Fire Resistance
• Increased Damage with Maces
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Increased Attack Damage
• Increased Area of Effect
• Increased Stun Build-Up
• Gain 3 Rage When Hit by an Enemy
• Gain 1 Rage on Melee Hit
• Empowered Attacks Deal Increased Damage
• Increased Warcry Speed
• Increased Block Chance

Take note that maximum fire resistance is capped at 90%. So, if you have already achieved that number, choose another modifier from the list to replace it.

Skills

Rolling Slam

• Overpower
• Aftershock
• Tremors
• Fire Exposure
• Reverberate

Leap Slam

• Martial Tempo
• Momentum
• Fire Infusion
• Reach
• Magnified Effect

Hammer of the Gods

• Fist of War
• Searing Flame
• Primal Armament
• Close Combat
• Eternal Flame
• Note: Swap Eternal Flame for Execute when wearing The Deepest Tower

Infernal Cry

• Premeditation
• Tireless
• Ingenuity
• Raging Cry

Herald of Ash

• Persistence
• Deadly Herald
• Strong Hearted
• Fire Mastery

Overwhelming Presence

• Vitality
• Cannibalism
• Herbalism

Shockwave Totem

• Ancestral Urgency
• Ironwood

Shield Charge

• Stomping Ground
• Note: Use Shield Charge primarily for moving around the map

Seismic Cry

• Enraged Warcry
• Mobility
• Murderous Intent

Passive Tree

Take the “Brutal” notable passive skill and head left until you get to “Beef.” Once that is allocated, go down and then right to take Brute Strength. Do not get Giant’s Blood yet because you do not have enough STR to wield a couple of two-handed maces at this time.

Next, head right and allocate Authority. Go back down, head right, and then up until you reach the Adrenaline Rush notable passive skill. By this time, you will have enough STR to make Giant’s Blood work, so allocate the said keystone.

When should you get Avatar of Fire, you ask? That’s a good question! Allocate Resolute Technique, Impact Area, and Impact Force first before you go ahead and take Avatar of Fire. That is because, by this time, you should have the necessary pieces of gear equipped.

Not having enough “Added Fire Damage” and “Adds Fire Damage to Attacks” makes this build feel weak. This is due to the fact that Avatar of Fire prevents you from dealing any other damage type except fire damage. Thus, only take Avatar of Fire when you are properly geared already.

Whenever Avatar of Fire is active, you can then start taking the fire damage nodes, such as Fulmination, Overheating Blow, Burn Away, Incendiary, and Smoke Inhalation. At this point, just allocate the rest of the passive skills indicated in the screenshot below:

Tips and Strategies [Patch 0.3.0]

How to Have a Smooth Landing

Whenever you use Leap Slam, you will notice that there is a slight delay after landing that prevents you from running for a very brief period. You can cancel that part of Leap Slam’s animation simply by performing a Dodge Roll. In other words, use Dodge Roll immediately after you land.

Cap Your Block Chance

If you remember earlier, we suggested that you increase your block chance as high as possible. The reason, besides being able to consistently block attacks, is that this build has Offensive Stance allocated. This is a notable passive skill that grants 1% increased damage per 1% chance to block (up to 75%).

You can even take things a step further by acquiring a Megalomaniac unique jewel that has “Lay Siege” as one of its passive skills. Lay Siege is virtually the same as Offensive Stance, albeit it's situated almost on the opposite side of the passive tree.

Thrillsteel or The Deepest Tower—Which One is Better?

You might be baffled as to which of these two unique helmets provides better value to the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. Well, that really depends on what you want to achieve.

Thrillsteel grants 20% increased skill speed and 10% increased movement speed via a permanent Onslaught Buff. The boost in skill speed alone makes your slam skills a lot smoother to use. Basically, opting for Thrillsteel is more about your improving quality of life than amplifying the damage of your skills.

The Deepest Tower, on the other hand, is great for enhancing your damage output, especially because of its unique modifier. If you are going to wear The Deepest Tower, make sure that you purchase the From Nothing (Unwavering Stance) jewel as well. This enables you to allocate the “Finality” notable passive skill without spending a ton of points to do so.

It is also worth noting that The Deepest Tower requires you to get Stars Aligned and Finishing Blows to get the most out of it.

Is ‘Flowing Metal’ Bad for This Build?

Flowing Metal is part of Smith’s Masterwork that grants 5% to your maximum fire resistance when allocated. This ascendancy node is not bad at all. In fact, you can definitely take it over Molten Symbol if you do not have a 90% maximum fire resistance just yet.

However, the reason why we didn’t include it in our version of the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava is that maximum fire resistance can be increased via Ruby Jewels and the Infernoclasp unique belt, so there’s no need for it in the endgame.

Is Avatar of Fire Really Necessary?

Yes, it is a core part of our version of the PoE 2 Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava in Patch 0.3.0. Landing with Leap Slam causes aftershocks that not only deal fire damage, but also ignite enemies that are within the landing zone.

Scaling fire damage is also easier because of the many modifiers that enhance it in some way (like increased fire damage, added fire damage, increased elemental damage, etc.).

Just remember to only get Avatar of Fire when you have the right weapon, gloves, and rings equipped. Never allocate it when you do not have enough fire damage on your build just yet.

Is there a version of the build that doesn’t take Avatar of Fire? Absolutely! Just remove Avatar of Fire, equip The Deepest Tower, and replace the fire damage nodes with passive skills that increase your damage against enemies that are on low life.

POB

Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava

PoE 2 Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava in Patch 0.3.0: Final Thoughts

A build that destroys enemies with heavy fire damage, that is the brand of the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. This build is not only tanky but it can destroy even T4 pinnacle content with the right gear!

The Smith of Kitava ascendancy class offers defense and utility unlike any other in PoE 2. Just make sure that you are wearing normal body armor so that you can add special mods via Smith’s Masterwork.

While the Smith of Kitava shares the same “clunkiness” as his brethren, we feel that this performs much better than the Stampede Titan for sure.

So, what can you say about the Rolling Slam Smith of Kitava build? Please share your thoughts in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

If you are looking to buy PoE 2 Currency, rare items, jewels, and uniques, our online shop is open 24/7! Our customer service representatives are ready to assist you and they will provide information about the game if you need any help regarding that as well.

PROS

• Using Leap Slam and causing massive AoE explosions upon landing provides a satisfying experience
• This build fully utilizes the defensive prowess of the Smith of Kitava
• Virtually unkillable when all of the recommended pieces of gear are equipped

CONS

• Some may find Leap Slamming enemies to be clunky
• Not a map blaster like other PoE 2 builds
• This is more suited for those who like slow and deliberate builds