0 Item Items 0 Item (s) - $0.00

Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer - Path of Exile 3.24

23.04.2024 - 15:40:02
Game Guides , Path of Exile , POE build guides

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 3.24 Necropolis 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.

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.

Notable Ascendancy Passive Skills for the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Slayer

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.

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:

Self-crafted Siege Axe

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!

Although this unique shield is expensive, The Squire is quite affordable in the 3.24 Necropolis League. Get yours while the price is still low!

The Squire

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.

Replica Farrul's Fur

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.”

Abyssus

Gloves

In Patch 3.24, you can utilize the league mechanic, specifically crafting via Arimor’s graveyard. Put as many corpses with “% Increased Chance of Haunted Modifiers” and “% Increased Chance for Prefix Modifiers” as you can. This is so that you can acquire the “+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges” explicit modifier quite easily.

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.”

Self-crafted Gloves (using the League Mechanic)

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.

Self-crafted Onslaught Boots

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.

Ralekesh's Impatience

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 considerable amount of missing unreserved life before you take incoming damage. With this thing alone, your chances of survival will definitely skyrocket!

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

Defiance of Destiny

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:

Panopticon

30% Increased Totem Damage
50% Increased Effect of Buffs Your Ancestor Totems Grant While Active
Requires Amber 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

Frenetic

+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges
Azure Oil, 2x Silver Oils

Stranglegasp

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, especially after GGG removed the mana cost reduction of skills on flasks in Patch 3.24.

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

Synthesized Ring (with +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges)

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 you Brutal Charges by completely replacing EC, you still gain the effects of Endurance Charges with the help of Ralakesh’s Impatience unique boots!

Arn's Anguish

Of course, you can never go wrong with the old trusty Mageblood. Even after the mana changes in Path of Exile: Necropolis League, this unique heavy belt is still quite valuable, whichever build you are playing.

Mageblood

Flasks

Ruby Flask
Sapphire Flask
Topaz Flask
Diamond Flask
Progenesis

The elemental flasks, namely the Ruby Flask, Sapphire Flask, and Topaz Flask, have been adjusted in Patch 3.24. In the past, these flasks used to reduce the elemental damage you take by 20%. But now, they grant you 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.

Flask Mods

60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)
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 3.24 Necropolis 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 an awesome new 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.

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.