PoE 2 Smith of Kitava Ascendancy Class - Everything You Need to Know [PoE 2 0.3]

Ben Author

Created - 03.09.2025 Updated - 03.09.2025

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Grinding Gear Games has revealed some of the new ascendancy classes that will be coming in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt. In this article, we will go over the ascendancy nodes for the Smith of Kitava so that you can plan out your build ahead of Patch 0.3.0.

Having said that, the Smith of Kitava shines when he is equipped with the best items. So, if you want to make sure that you want the Smith of Kitava to deal the most amount of damage, do visit our PoE 2 Store to satisfy all your gearing needs.

PoE 2 Smith of Kitava

Unlike all of the new ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, the Smith of Kitava stood out to us the most. That is because of Smith's Masterwork—an ascendancy node that allows the Smith of Kitava to add incredible modifiers on body armor with normal rarity.

If you do not know what ascendancy nodes are in Path of Exile 2, you can check out our written guide. Anyway, let’s go over his ascendancy nodes, shall we?

Smith's Masterwork

When you look at the notable ascendancy passive tree for the Smith of Kitava, you will see a lone node at the center. This ascendancy node is called Smith's Masterwork.

You can freely allocate Smith's Masterwork without spending points. However, you have to spend points when you take any of the special modifiers.

There are about 12 modifiers under Smith's Masterwork. They are:

• Flowing Metal
• Body armor grants “+5% to Maximum Fire Resistance”
• Molten Symbol
• Body Armor grants “25% of Physical damage from hits taken as fire damage”
• Internal Layer
• Body armor grants “Hits against you have a 50% reduced critical damage bonus”
• Leather Bindings
• Body armor grants “Regenerate 5% of Life per Second”
• Lead Lining
• Body armor grants “+75% to Lightning Resistance”
• Support Straps
• Body armor grants “20% Increased Strength”
• Kitavan Engraving
• Body armor grants “15% Increased Maximum Life”
• Heatproofing
• Body armor grants “Unaffected by Ignite”
• Tantalum Alloy
• Body armor grants “+75% to Fire Resistance”
• Heavy Bracing
• Body armor grants “100% Increased Stun Threshold”
• Padded Plates
• Body armor grants “+75% to Cold Resistance”
• Dedicated to Kitava
• Body armor grants “Armour also applies to Chaos Damage Taken from Hits”

There are several amazing modifiers that you can put on the body armor thanks to Smith's Masterwork. Flowing Metal is great because it grants an increase of 5% to your maximum fire resistance. That means that this node, barring any similar modifiers on gear, raises your fire resistance cap from 75% to 80%.

Just in case you do not know, any percentage increase in elemental resistance past 75% actually provides you with more protection, which is why Flowing Metal is an invaluable addition to the body armor, particularly if you want to take advantage of self-ignite mechanics (in the future).

Kitavan Engraving also deserves a special mention. The developers did not mention any changes to the passive tree in Patch 0.2.0. So, assuming that we still have the same passive tree in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, it is devoid of any meaningful increases in maximum life (apart from Unbending, of course).

The Kitavan Engraving ascendancy node stands out because it provides not only an increase in life but also a considerable amount at that. A 15% raise to your maximum life would allow you to reach absurd HP numbers like upwards of 7,000 HP!

Almost all Warrior Builds in PoE 2 utilize a couple of rare two-handed maces with high physical damage for maximum pain. This is only possible when the Giant’s Blood keystone passive is allocated.

Even though Giant's Blood lets you equip two large weapons at the same time without any damage penalty, the said keystone does increase their attribute requirements significantly (about triple the amount). So, if your endgame two-handed mace requires 212 STR to wield by default, you will need about 636 STR to equip a couple of them.

Support Straps is awesome because it alleviates the need to roll STR on certain pieces of gear. Instead of having the strength stat on every item on your Smith of Kitava, you can have at least a couple of pieces of gear that have different suffix modifiers. Perhaps, you can use these modifiers to address your elemental resistance and whatnot.

Speaking of elemental resistances, Tantalum Alloy, Padded Plates, and Lead Lining provide 75% resistance to fire, cold, and lightning damage, respectively. If you put just one of them on your body armor, that is a single elemental resistance mod that is already capped, allowing you to focus on another suffix modifier of your choosing.

Now, there are a couple of things that you have to keep in mind when it comes to this ascendancy node. First, it is unclear whether you can add more than one of the special modifiers listed above since GGG still did not disclose the patch notes at the time of writing.

Second, you can only add these special modifiers on normal body armor. That means that you get chest armor with white/gray text and not the ones with blue or yellow. Perhaps you can improve the body armor with certain PoE 2 currencies, such as the PoE 2 Exalted Orbs and PoE 2 Regal Orbs, but we will have to wait and see if that is possible.

Coal Stoker

Some of the ascendancy nodes that the Smith of Kitava has access to are a lot like the Chieftain ascendancy class in the original Path of Exile. You can read more about the Chieftain in our guide here.

Anyway, Coal Stoker allows you to focus heavily on improving fire resistance. Why? Because doing so will increase both cold and lightning resistance at 50% of their value. For example, if you have about 150% overcapped fire resistance, that translates to 75% for your other elemental resistance modifiers as well.

Forged in Flame

This next ascendancy node works similarly to the previous ascendancy node, albeit it alters maximum resistances rather than the base amount.

Forged in Flame makes it so that your maximum fire resistance also applies to your maximum cold and lightning resistances. Assuming that you have 90% maximum fire resistance, your other elemental resistance mods should have the same value too!

Judging by this ascendancy node alone, we can already tell that the Smith of Kitava is the tankiest Warrior Ascendancy Class in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt!

Against the Anvil

The Smith of Kitava has a few ascendancy nodes that grant new skills—one of which is Against the Anvil. This grants the “Temper Weapon” skill, which allows you to imbue certain properties on your equipped weapon, potentially making it vastly better than before.

It is still unknown what modifiers you can add to your weapon using Against the Anvil, though it certainly is quite interesting. Be sure to use a particularly good weapon, such as this rare two-handed mace from our PoE 2 Store that has “+ to Level of All Melee Skills.”

Living Weapon

During the reveal livestream, GGG showcased the Living Weapon, which is an ascendancy node that grants the “Manifest Weapon” skill. This basically creates a living copy of your equipped weapon that fights alongside you while mapping and bossing.

We still do not know if this is a persistent minion or a temporary one. If it is the former, you can enhance it even further by adding various support gems. Check out some of the new support gems in PoE 2 Patch 0.2.0 by reading our article.

Heat of the Forge

The last ascendancy node for the Smith of Kitava is called Heat of the Forge. This grants “Fire Spell on Hit” which is apparently a skill. As previously mentioned, the patch notes for Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt have not been released yet, so we can only surmise that this ascendancy node enables you to socket any fire spell that you want, which may automatically be triggered when you are hit.

Smith of Kitava Changes In PoE 2 0.3

With the Third Edict patch, there are a few changes being made to this ascendancy that you need to be mindful of:

Final Thoughts

By the looks of it, the Smith of Kitava is an incredible melee warrior in PoE 2 who can handle pretty much anything. He is quite sturdy thanks to some of his elemental resistance mods, including Forged in Flame, Coal Stoker, and Lead Lining, among others.

Smith's Masterwork is one of the most interesting ascendancy nodes we have seen in the Path of Exile franchise to date. This particular ascendancy node alone can give you the ability to craft powerful body armor. We are excited to see what you can come up with!

Of course, the Smith of Kitava is no slouch on offense. Against the Anvil enables the Smith of Kitava to add certain modifiers on his weapon, making it hurt like hell to enemies at the receiving end of his mace!

Additionally, Living Weapon allows the Smith of Kitava to summon a copy of his weapon to go to battle alongside him. This certainly needs a competent weapon, to begin with, so be sure to go to our PoE 2 Store to grab one!

With all of that said, do you find the Smith of Kitava ascendancy class interesting? If so, which ascendancy nodes do you like the most? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

FAQs

What are the best mods for Smith's Masterwork in PoE 2 0.3?

As of the most recent patch, the best mods are Flowing Metal (+5% max fire res), Kitavan Engraving (+15% max life), Support Straps (+20% Strength), elemental res caps (Tantalum/Padded/Lead Lining: +75% Fire/Cold/Lightning), Internal Layer (-50% crit damage taken), Heatproofing (Unaffected by Ignite), and Dedicated to Kitava (Armour applies to chaos hit damage). 

What are the key changes for the Smith of Kitave in PoE 2 0.3?

The most notable change has to be with Flowing Metal. With the update, it has 50% more armour for Elemental Damage as well, further adding to the tankiness of the ascendancy. There are a few other changes in the skills for the class.

What new skills does Smith of Kitava get in PoE 2??

• Against the Anvil → Temper Weapon: temporarily imbues your equipped weapon with added properties (exact rolls TBD).
• Living Weapon → Manifest Weapon: creates a fighting copy of your weapon (persistence/links TBD).

Heat of the Forge → Fire Spell on Hit: appears to trigger a socketed fire spell when you're hit (details TBD).