PoE 3.25 Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Build

Slam skills in Path of Exile are often overlooked because you would have to go near the enemy before you initiate the attack. If you don’t do this, you might not hit anything! In a fast-paced ARPG like PoE, this is quite cumbersome and can definitely reduce your mapping efficiency.

While that is true for most slam skills in the game, the one we are going to talk about today is far from that. If anything, we would argue that the build that will be highlighted in this guide is a fun and awesome one that gets stronger the more currency you invest into it.

If you are interested in creating this character, then read further. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

The normal version of Volcanic Fissure is quite clunky to use. That is why most builds that utilize this slam skill would often link it with totems to maximize its effectiveness. Well, that is probably not what Grinding Gear Games had intended, so the company rectified that by introducing a new Transfigured Gem called the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking.

Unlike the original version where molten projectiles fire directly from the point of impact, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking actually moves to a few places, causing explosions on each one. This skill no longer produces projectiles but it is replaced with several fissures that deal fire damage over several areas.

What's great about the transfigured version of Volcanic Fissure is that you do not actually have to be close to a target. That is because the "snaking" fissures have auto-targeting, so they automatically go to the nearest enemy to deal damage.

Volcanic Fissure of Snaking actually got buffed in Patch 3.25 as part of Grinding Gear Games' effort to make melee builds great again. This Transfigured Gem has its effectiveness of base and added damage set to 164%-318% (up from 130%-185%).

The sizable increase in damage means that you can clear maps more effectively now than before. However, you have to take into account the increased mana cost of this skill that scales with gem levels. At gem level 20, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking costs 14 mana to use.

It is important to note that this build is an amazing mapping build, but its single-target damage is a bit mediocre. Luckily, you can address that by equipping some pretty awesome items, which will be discussed in greater detail later on in the build guide.

We at RPGStash just do not settle for an "okay" build; we want you to have a blast playing this incredible game. Hence, this guide has been updated to include only the best items that truly bring out the most of what this build can offer.

Having said that, here are the modifiers that you can look for on your gear to improve the build’s damage potential:

• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Increased Fire Damage
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Increased Area Damage
• Increased Critical Strike Chance
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Increased Attack Speed

Playstyle

Simple and straightforward — these are the words we would use to describe the playstyle of the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer.

When mapping, activate Sand Stance to gain increased AoE for your fissures. Drop your Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Protector totems if you need a boost in damage.

Ascendancy

The Volcanic Fissure of Snaking can be utilized by several different ascendancy classes. However, the one we recommend for this build is the Slayer. Why, you ask? Well, the Slayer has access to offensive nodes that allow you to make quick work of the enemy without the need for heavy investment.

Impact is an incredible first node to take as it helps you address your accuracy and melee strike range early on. With this notable ascendancy passive skill allocated, your Volcanic Fissure slams become more devastating if there are plenty of monsters in close proximity.

Bane of Legends aids in dealing with rare and unique enemies in the game. This lets you breeze through the main campaign of Path of Exile because of the damage boost you can gain simply by killing monsters.

Brutal Fervour helps with your survivability and life sustain. This node grants you the ability to leech life off of enemies, which is a welcome thing to have on your early mapping runs. You take 10% reduced damage while leeching as well, so your chances of dying become minimal as long as you are attacking something.

Since this build now utilizes a one-handed axe instead of a two-handed weapon, taking Overwhelm over Headsman is a must. This notable ascendancy passive skill greatly increases your critical strike chance, thus allowing you to land more devastating attacks on the enemy.

When you have enough PoE currency, purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Masterful Form” as the matching modifier. In the endgame, this build stacks as many Frenzy Charges as possible, which is why taking this ascendancy node makes sense.

Gear

We are happy to say that the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer does not have any mandatory items for it to work. However, we at RPGStash want you to have an enjoyable experience, so in each section, we will provide you with only the best items for this build.

It is important to note that this version of the build is not a league starter due to the presence of expensive items. Still, if you want a competent build that you can use to eliminate enemies with ease, you’ll need to spend enough PoE Currency anyway.

Weapon

The best weapon for this build is a self-crafted Siege Axe with a few influenced modifiers. The reason why you are using a Siege Axe as the crafting base is that it has the highest base attack speed among its counterparts.

That said, you will need a couple of these weapons — one with a Shaper influence and the other with the Elder influence. Both of these axes should have an item level of 84+.

On the Shaper-influenced Siege Axe, use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get the mod: "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level 20 Elemental Damage with Attacks, 37% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills." After obtaining the said modifier, use a Regal Orb then set it aside for now.

For the Elder-influenced Siege Axe, use Harvest Reforge Attack again; only this time, you are looking for the prefix: "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level 20 Ruthless, 134% Increased Physical Damage." Just like the previous weapon, use a Regal Orb after acquiring the desired mod.

Once you have successfully obtained the above-mentioned influenced modifiers, combine both weapons using an Awakener's Orb. Although this process will populate the resulting weapon with random modifiers, there is a huge chance that you will have an open suffix. If that is the case, put “Prefixes Cannot Be Changed” from the Crafting Bench. Otherwise, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that it removes an unnecessary suffix.

After that, use Harvest Reforge Critical to get the mod: "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level 20 Increased Critical Damage, +29% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier."

Now, if you still have open affix slots, use the Crafting Bench and Exalted Orbs to fill them up.

If you have followed the instructions to the tee, you should have something like this:

Shield

There is a reason why you use a self-crafted, double-influenced Siege Axe and that is because you will put Volcanic Fissure of Snaking, as well as its support gems, into the weapon.

To get the most out of the Transfigured Gem, you will be using The Squire. This is an incredible shield in Path of Exile, mainly because any gem you socket into it will support the gems that are on your main hand weapon!

With the introduction of Retaliation Skills and the rework to the Gladiator ascendancy class in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, you can expect that The Squire will become expensive again in this league.

Body Armor

The best body armor for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer is Replica Farrul's Fur. You are wearing this mainly as a means of gaining near-permanent Onslaught via Cat's Agility. Replica Farrul's Fur also has other good mods, including life, armor, and evasion.

Helmet

The Abyssus is an incredible helmet in terms of boosting your damage immensely. It contains a slew of mods that can benefit the build, including added physical damage, melee critical strike multiplier, armor, and even some attributes.

But, it should be said that the Abyssus has one major downside in that you take increased physical damage when you wear it. That is why you should get one that only has 40% to 42% increased physical damage taken to somehow make monster hits more bearable.

Anyway, mana is pretty tight on this build. For this reason, we advise you to buy a corrupted Abyssus with the implicit modifier: "Socketed Skill Gems Get a 90% Cost and Reservation Multiplier."

Gloves

Since the graveyard crafting mechanic from the previous league has completely been removed from the game, you're going to craft a new pair of gloves for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer.

Therefore, grab some ilvl 85+ Wyvernscale Gauntlets. This is a new pair of gloves introduced in Patch 3.25 that provides the highest armor/evasion value for this slot. Having said that, spam the gloves with the Deafening Essence of Greed (Life) until you get spell suppression, evasion, and some resistances.

Leave a suffix open so that you can add the Aspect of the Cat skill via beastcrafting. To do this, head to your Menagerie and place the crafted gloves on the circle located at the center of the arena. It should go without saying that you must have Farrul, First of the Plains already captured for this to work.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the resulting gloves with Eldritch Ichors to get "+ to Accuracy Rating per Frenzy Charge" and Eldritch Embers for "% Chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit."

Boots

A pair of Onslaught Boots can go a very long way for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer. The increased attack speed this buff provides makes the build incredibly smooth to use! If you are interested in learning how to craft this beauty, head to our ultimate crafting guide for complete instructions.

While you can wear the Onslaught Boots, you have to swap them with Ralakesh’s Impatience once you transition to the Frenzy Charge-stacking endgame variant of the build. This is because you are going to wear a particular unique belt that transforms Endurance Charges into something else. More on this in a bit.

Amulet

There are a couple of viable options you can take when it comes to the amulet you are going to wear for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer. First is the Defiance of Destiny and the second is a Stranglegasp.

The Defiance of Destiny has a unique effect where you recover a portion of your missing unreserved life before you take incoming damage. With this thing alone, your chances of survival will definitely skyrocket!

Even though the Defiance of Destiny has been nerfed considerably in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, it is still a viable option for this build regardless of the adjustment.

Anoint the amulet with Frenetic (Azure Oil, 2x Silver Oils) to raise your Maximum Frenzy Charges by one.

When you have enough PoE currency, you should definitely go for the Stranglegasp. This amulet lets you put up to four different Blight anoints on it. Speaking of which, here are the ones that you should include on the Stranglegasp:

• Charisma
• 16% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
• 6% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills
• Requires Opalescent Oil, 2x Golden Oils
• Disciple of the Unyielding 
• +1 to Minimum Endurance Charges
• 8% Increased Damage per Endurance Charge
• Requires Violet Oil, Crimson Oil, Opalescent Oil
• Disemboweling
• 50% Increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
• +25% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• Requires Verdant Oil, Violet Oil, Golden Oil
• Frenetic
• +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges
• Requires Azure Oil, 2x Silver Oils

Rings

You want to raise the limit of your Frenzy Charges to boost your damage. To help you with that, you can wear a couple of synthesized rings with "+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges" as the implicit modifier.

Once you have acquired the base, spam it with the Essence of Scorn (Crit Multiplier) until you get "% Increased Fire Damage" and another suffix of your choosing. Then, put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench and use an Orb of Scouring afterward. Doing so removes the prefix modifiers on the ring.

After that, lock the suffixes again, but instead of using an Orb of Scouring, you will go for a Veiled Orb. This will guarantee a veiled prefix. Bench-craft "Adds # to # to Fire Damage, Adds # to # to Cold Damage" before heading to Jun to Unveil.

When unveiling, look for the mod: "+55 to Maximum Mana, 7% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills." Go to the Crafting Bench once more and put "Non-Channelling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost."

These mana modifiers should help you sustain the said resource. If you are no longer having mana problems in Patch 3.25, you can replace the veiled mod with its life equivalent instead.

Don't forget to spam the ring with Unstable Catalysts to improve the crit multiplier suffix.

Belt

You might already have an idea what belt you will use for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer, but if you still have not cracked it yet, it is Arn's Anguish.

Remember what we said earlier that the belt you are going to use transforms your Endurance Charges into a special charge? Well, Arn's Anguish converts all of the Endurance Charges you have into Brutal Charges.

So, what does the Brutal Charge do? For every charge that you have, you gain a 3% chance to deal triple damage. Just getting your Brutal Charges to eight or 10 can significantly increase the damage of the build!

Now, if you are worrying about your survivability, don't be! Even though Arn's Anguish grants Brutal Charges by completely replacing EC, you still gain the effects of Endurance Charges with the help of Ralakesh's Impatience unique boots!

Of course, you can never go wrong with the old trusty Mageblood. This unique heavy belt is still quite valuable in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Flasks

• Ruby Flask
• Sapphire Flask
• Topaz Flask
• Diamond Flask
• Progenesis/Prismatic Tincture

The elemental flasks, namely the Ruby Flask, Sapphire Flask, and Topaz Flask, were adjusted in the previous league. Back then, these flasks were used to mitigate the elemental damage you take by 20%. But now, they grant 40% fire/cold/lightning resistance, as well as 5% to your maximum elemental resistances when they are active.

This is actually a good thing as you can easily go above the 75% elemental resistance cap, making you noticeably tankier than ever before.

The Diamond Flask is there to significantly boost your chance of landing a critical hit with the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking.

Progenesis is an expensive flask, but that is because it works similarly to Petrified Blood, which greatly increases your chances of survival. Save up some PoE currency and get your hands on it as soon as you can.

In case you're not aware, GGG has brought back Tinctures to Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. If you do not have any problems with survivability, you can swap Progenesis with the Prismatic Tincture.

The said Tincture grants up to 100% increased elemental damage with melee weapons. When you use this, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer's effectiveness will be dialed to 11!

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)

Jewels

So, what are the best jewels that you can use for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League?

The Watcher's Eye has become a staple in many PoE builds, so why not include it in here? If you are shopping for this jewel on the trade website, look for any of these modifiers:

• Anger
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• % Increased Fire Damage
• Damage Penetrates % Fire Resistance
• Precision
• % Increased Attack Speed
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• % Increased Attack Damage

With so many unique items on this build, you might not have enough attributes to use them all. To address this, get an Elegant Hubris (Caspiro) so that the nearest keystone passive transforms into Supreme Ostentation. This allows you to ignore all of the attribute requirements on items and gems.

While you're at it, obtain an Impossible Escape jewel (Elemental Equilibrium) so that you can get the notable passive skills that are within the said keystone.

The cool thing about the Elegant Hubris is that it can sometimes roll with "80% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked" as one of the notable passive skills in its radius. If you are lucky to get one, why not maximize it by purchasing the Stormshroud as well?

To further emphasize the Slayer's leeching ability, you can add a Large Cluster Jewel (Axe and Sword Damage) and use Harvest Reforge Attack to get these notable passive skills:

• Feed the Fury
• 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
• 30% Increased Damage While Leeching
• 15% Increased Attack Speed While Leeching
• Martial Prowess
• 20% Increased Attack Damage
• 6% Increased Attack Speed
• 15% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
• 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills
• Fuel the Fight
• 8% Increased Attack Speed
• 0.4% Attack Damage Leeched as Mana
• 20% Increased Damage While Leeching

If you can fit another Large Cluster Jewel (Attack Damage While Holding a Shield), use Harvest Reforge Attack to obtain Prodigious Defense. This passive skill not only increases your attack damage while holding a shield, but you also gain a boost to your spell block and attack block chance.

Not comfortable with the crit chance that you have right now? If so, don't forget to include at least one Medium Cluster Jewel (Critical Strike Chance) and put it on the passive tree. Use Harvest Reforge Caster to obtain these passives:

• Quick Getaway
• 5% Increased Attack and Cast Speed
• 5% Increased Movement Speed if You’ve Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• 25% Increased Critical Strike Chance
• Pressure Points
• Your Critical Strikes Have a 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
• 30% Increased Critical Strike Chance

Unnatural Instinct, when inserted into the jewel socket just above "Fervour" on the passive tree, allows you to gain certain bonuses, such as increased crit chance, elemental resistance, life, evasion, attack speed, and accuracy.

The Perandus Pact is now called The Light of Meaning in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. It is still an awesome unique jewel in PoE that grants additional modifiers to passive skills within its radius. This is a great way for you to get some chaos resistance into the build. Do not confuse this jewel with That Which Was Taken because they do have the same item art.

Gems

Welcome to the gems section of the build guide! Here, you will find the gems that we recommend that you use for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer. If you see "Awakened" versions of support gems, that is because we take the endgame into account. The base versions just work fine, except of course for your main slam skill.

Take a closer look at some of the gem setups for the 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur version of the build. That is because there are some notable changes, particularly to address the removal of melee totems in this league.

Weapon

• Volcanic Fissure of Snaking
• Awakened Multistrike
• Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support/Overexertion Support

Your main attack on this build is the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking. This gem converts 60% of your physical damage to fire damage and has a 50% wider coverage compared to the base version of the skill gem.

As previously mentioned, this Transfigured Gem now deals significantly more damage than before. But, its mana cost is increased as well, so you have to rectify that by rolling some mana mods on your rings.

Awakened Multistrike enables your main attack skill to repeat a few times, with each subsequent attack dealing more damage than the last.

If you are wondering why Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support is included in your main setup, that is primarily to enhance your Endurance Charges to give you a “more damage” multiplier per charge.

You could also use the new Overexertion Support, which causes Volcanic Fissure of Snaking to deal more damage for each warcry exerting it.

Shield

• Awakened Melee Physical Damage
• Awakened Added Fire Damage
• Inspiration Support

With The Squire equipped, any gem that you insert into the shield will support the ones that are socketed into your main-hand weapon as well.

That said, Volcanic Fissure of Snaking converts 60% of your physical damage to fire damage. To boost that even further, you will use Awakened Melee Physical Damage.

Awakened Added Fire Damage, as the name of the gem implies, increases your fire damage by a considerable amount. Besides that, it gives you extra fire damage based on a sizable portion of your physical damage.

Inspiration Support has been buffed in Patch 3.25. It now reduces the mana cost of supported skills multiplicatively rather than additively. In other words, you will have little to no problems casting your primary skill when you use the newly buffed Inspiration Support.

Body Armor

• Assassin's Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Blood Rage
• Berserk
• Immortal Call
• Automation Support

Assassin's Mark increases your crit chance and critical strike multiplier against cursed enemies. Mark on Hit Support automatically applies the said Mark skill whenever you attack a rare or unique enemy.

Speaking of automatic activation, Automation Support is also included in this setup. This support gem still has the same effect in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Having said that, Automation Support triggers Blood Rage, Berserk, and Immortal Call whenever they are off cooldown.

Now, Berserk now has a vastly different effect in Patch 3.25 compared to before. Instead of granting you more damage, attack speed, and movement speed, it now only grants a 59% increased Rage effect at gem level 20.

Rage, as a resource, has also been tweaked. You no longer get any attack speed or movement speed bonuses per point of Rage. Rather, you gain more damage.

So, what does this all mean? It means that Berserk enhances the effect of Rage, thus providing you with a huge damage boost.

Helmet

• Precision
• Arrogance Support
• Enduring Cry
• More Duration Support

Precision is mandatory to help you achieve 100% crit chance and accuracy. Since this reserves a flat amount of mana when activated, you might not have enough of the said resource to enjoy a max-level Precision aura. For this reason, you are going to link it to Arrogance Support so that it reserves a relatively small portion of your life instead of your mana.

Enduring Cry helps bolster your defense against physical and elemental damage per Endurance Charge. Furthermore, activating this warcry skill regenerates a good chunk of your HP in a span of just one second.

In the previous version of this build, we recommended that you add Call to Arms Support in this setup to automatically cast Enduring Cry whenever it was available. However, this support gem (which is now called Autoexertion Support, by the way) prevents you from gaining buffs or charges from the Warcry Skill it is linked to.

That is the reason why it has been replaced with More Duration Support. Although you lose the ability to automatically trigger Enduring Cry, the boost in life regeneration that it provides is not removed at all. If anything, it now lasts longer thanks to this support gem!

Gloves

• Anger
• Petrified Blood
• Blood and Sand
• Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

Anger provides you with heaps of added fire damage, so it is always a welcome addition to the build.

Petrified Blood, on the other hand, is responsible for keeping you alive. When activated, it reserves 50% of your life, but in doing so, it protects the lower half of your HP by distributing the damage you receive over a period of several seconds, rather than getting the brunt of it immediately.

Blood and Sand allows you to change stances at any time. Use Sand Stance while mapping for its increased AoE. When fighting against tough monsters or bosses, switch to Blood Stance.

A level 4 Enlighten Support is required to reserve all of these auras with some mana left in the tank for your other skills.

Boots

• Infernal Cry
• Rallying Cry
• Autoexertion Support
• War Banner

Pretty much all Warcry Skills have received substantial changes in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. Let's start with Infernal Cry. This warcry exerts your next attacks to trigger Combust on the first enemy that is hit. This allows you to improve your map-clearing speed.

Rallying Cry also exerts your next attacks. However, instead of triggering Combust, your attacks will deal more damage.

Take note that while Autoexertion Support triggers these Warcry Skills automatically whenever they are available for use, you do lose the ability to gain the buffs these warcries provide. This is precisely the reason why Enduring Cry is not included in this particular gem setup.

Anyway, Grinding Gear Games has done a balancing pass on Banner Skills in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur as well. War Banner, in particular, improves your physical damage and accuracy rating.

Keep in mind that you can only acquire those buffs if you plant the War Banner on the ground. Otherwise, the said Banner Skill will do nothing.

Tattoos

Look, it is a bit frustrating that Wildwood Ascendancies have not yet returned in Patch 3.25. But, the good news is that the Tattoos are still here and they do grant some useful bonuses. So, which ones are ideal for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer? Here are the ones that we recommend:

• Tattoo of the Ngamahu Warrior
• 5% Increased Fire Damage
• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
• 5% Increased Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger
• 5% Increased Melee Damage
• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout
• 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warrior
• Melee Hits Which Stun Have a 5% Chance to Fortify
• Tattoo of the Archer
• 5% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot
• 2% Increased Movement Speed
• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman
• +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Final Thoughts

The Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer is an amazingly fun build that utilizes the said slam skill in a more proactive way. With this Transfigured Gem, you no longer have to put Volcanic Fissure along with totems anymore! Instead, you will be the one to do all of the slamming!

Speaking of totems, the removal of melee totems like Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief does affect the build in some capacity. However, the good news is that GGG has replaced them with new mechanics and synergies.

For instance, the newly renamed Call to Arms Support (now called Autoexertion) triggers the Warcry Skills that are linked to it; all without sharing cooldowns. On top of that, the change to Berserk now provides more damage, though it comes at the cost of slightly lower attack speed.

This version of the build utilizes more expensive items. We feel that a higher investment brings out the best of what this build can offer, which is why this is no longer a viable league starter.

Still, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer performs even better than before thanks to the changes GGG has implemented in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League.

We hope that this build guide has served you well. Be sure to bookmark this for future reference. While you are at it, do not forget to also save the URL of our ultimate crafting guide as it will come in handy for sure!

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

PROS

+Amazing build to play

+Utilizes Volcanic Fissure of Snaking to a great effect

+Slayer notable ascendancy passive skills provide a ton of power to the build

+Incredible damage potential, especially with the buffs implemented in this league

+Is now better in Patch 3.25

CONS

-No longer a viable league starter

-Now requires a considerable investment to put up