Home / Build / [3.2] Axe RT Tectonic Slam Marauder (Chieftain) League Starter

[3.2] Axe RT Tectonic Slam Marauder (Chieftain) League Starter

Intro & build description

There are new skill gems coming with Bestiary league and this build is made around one of the new gems – Tectonic Slam. The build is very tanky, can potentially go to more than 500k damage and have 7000+ life which makes it durable mapper and boss killer. It’s very cheap to start off and would have easy time mapping in the first days of the league.

Build Pros

  • Very cheap to start off and scales extremely well with some investment
  • Very versatile in gear choices, for example, the build can use Kaom's Heart, Belly, Rare chest piece etc. Can use maces and swords with pretty minor tree adjustments.
  • Can be built very tanky while maintaining high damage output
  • Excellent Uber Lab farmer

Build Cons

  • As it is elemental conversion build, elemental reflect can be painful in no-regeneration maps
  • Extended boss fights might be a bit slower due to limited endurance charge generation for Tectonic Strike (But still more than doable)

Passive tree(s) and Path of Building

Passive Skill Tree [120p]

Bandits

Bandits Quest Choice
Kill all bandits

Ascendancy skill points

LabyrinthsSkill point choice
Labyrinth 1Ngamahu, Flame's Advance
Labyrinth 2Hinekora, Death's Fury
Labyrinth 3Tawhoa, Forest's Strength
Endgame LabyrinthRamako, Sun's Light

Skill gem setup

Helm


Hatred

Herald of Ash

Enduring Cry

Blood Rage


Body Armor


Ancestral Warchief

Elemental Damage With Attacks Support

Concentrated Effect Support

Melee Physical Damage Support

Maim Support

Ruthless Support


Gloves


Leap Slam

Faster Attacks Support

Fortify Support

Blood Magic Support


Boots


Cast When Damage Taken Support (Level 13)

Molten Shell (Level 17)

Summon Flame Golem (Level 14)

Warlord's Mark (Unlinked)


2h Weapon


Tectonic Slam

Elemental Damage With Attack Skills Support

Concentrated Effect Support

Elemental Focus Support

Melee Physical Damage Support

Added Fire Damage Support


1h Weapon


None


Offhand weapon / shield


None



Build uniques / Example rare gear


Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.trade

Helmet

Devoto's Devotion

Devoto’s Devotion is a great helm which is fairly inexpensive and gives you attack and movement speed.

Other option would be rare helmet with at least 70 life and as high resistances as you can get.

For enchantment look for 40% increased Tectonic Slam damage or chance not to consume Endurance Charge.


Body Armour

Belly of The Beast

Ideally look for Belly of The Beast, however, at the beginning of the league 6-linked Belly will be very expensive.

Good alternative would be to buy cheap 5-link and use that until you can afford either Belly or 6-linked rare body armour (or Celestial Justicar card set).

Let me note that with 5-link you will be able to comfortably clear maps so farming for currency will not be an issue.


Gloves

Spiked Gloves / Other armour based rare gloves

Ideally look for Spiked Gloves base for their implicit mod. If you have them, definitely do not use any glove enchantments from Labyrinth because they would be worse than implicit.
If you cannot get good Spiked Gloves, any other rare armour based gloves will work.
Stats-wise look for as high life as possible combined with attack speed and 1 or 2 resistances.


Boots

Two-Toned Boots / Death's Door

Look for Two-Toned boots with high life, resistances and movement speed.

Because we are playing build with Endurance Charges, Death’s Door unique boots would be awesome for our build as well if you can afford them. They give us and extra Endurance Charge and immunity to bleeds which can be pretty huge.


Left Ring

Opal Ring / Two-Stone Ring / Other Resitance Rings

Ideal rings for the build would have:

1.) At least 60 life
2.) At least 30% increased elemental damage with attacks
3.) Attack speed
4.) Resistances

But rings with all 4 of these stats can be very expensive, so if you can, get first 3 stats and get your resistances capped on other pieces of gear. Rings like hat would be pretty huge boost to our damage.


Right Ring

Opal Ring / Two-Stone Ring / Other Resistance Rings

Same as previously mentioned ring.


Belt

Stygian Vise / Darkness Enthroned

Look for Stygian Vise with at least 75 to maximum life and high resistances. Elemental Damage With Attacks is a great bonus but can be expensive.
Leather Belt with same mods would be a great alternative.

If you want to push build further, you could go for Darkness Enthroned unique belt and get 2 well-rolled Abyss jewels with flat life, resistances and some damage mods.


Amulet

Agate / Turquoise Amulet

On amulet look for high life, elemental damage with attacks and some resistances. Increased fire damage would be nice bonus.


2Hand Weapon

Hezmana's Bloodlust / Atziri's Disfavour

Hezmana’s Bloodlust has pretty high damage and Blood Magic which in combination with our high life regeneration makes us forget about mana management. With Hezmana’s you can comfortably clear endgame maps and when you want to push build further, get Atziri’s Disfavour which would be huge upgrade.


Jewel

Build's Jewels

On jewels look for:

1.) Increased maximum life
2.) Increased physical damage / Area damage / Damage / Damage with 2handed weapons etc
3.) Increased Attack speed
4.) Increased Fire damage
5.) Attributes or resistances if you are lacking any


Flask

Flask Setup

Look for following flasks:

1.) Divine Life flask with instant recovery and bleed removal
2.) Divine Life flask with instant recovery and freeze removal
3.) Basalt Flask
4.) Granite Flask
5.) Atziri’s Promise / Lion’s Roar / Taste of Hate



Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences/tips about the build in comments section below.

About gems

Always tries to keep up with the game, its ever-changing mechanisms and explain them in understandable manner.

36 comments

  1. but tectonic strike consume endurance charge only if you have… i mean if you havent got any you still can use skill i think

  2. arent stigian vices abyss only?

  3. Summon flame golem marked as blue gem is just a simple mistake, right?

    • Yep, changed it to red.

      • Nice. Also thanks for the guide, having a lot of fun playing this build 😉

        just a quick question – are you leveling all the green gems to maximum? Blood rage requires 155 dex and faster attacks 111.

        There are barely any dex nodes on the tree (40dex total if i got it right). Does this mean that you are compensating it with dex on gear? Or just leaving those gems on lower levels?

        This is currently a big struggle for me as whenever i want to upgrade my gear, I need to think about maintaining about ~40dex on it, which makes upgrades either very limited or very expensive.

        I would appreciate a bit more context here.

        • Good to hear you like it!
          Yes, I am leveling them to max, although I currently do not use Blood Rage.
          For the dex – yep, you should get some on your gear, getting DEX amulet base would be a great choice, getting helm or boots with dexterity would also be an option. If you need around 40 dex and gear is not an option, consider grabbing a jewel with some dex and Expertise node with +30 dex on the tree.

          • Would you mind sharing how it looks currenly? Mostly in terms of items. Im gonna end up customizing it anyways, but just for inspiration and ideas 🙂

            Thanks in advance!

          • Items – Belly, Disfavour, Devoto’s, rings & amulet with high life, elemental damage with attacks and some res, belt with high life and 2 res, boots with 30ms, high life and res, spiked gloves with high life and 2 resistances.

  4. how should i spend my ascendancy points?

    I thought about maxing top and mid paths up to Ramako, sun’s light and hinekora, death’s fury.

    Or there is a better way?

  5. How does ‘Hatred’ play into this build? Please explain for a noob.

    Thanks!

    • Hatred gives us extra damage as cold, simple as that. It applies the damage before physical conversion to fire, so it still works even if we are dealing 100% fire damage.

  6. One more thing – which Pantheons you are usually using?

    Btw if someone is interested: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/DeaconRL/characters char name: SzczepanLuzik

    Just hit lvl 90 with this build. I was extremely unlucky with drops this league (most expensive item I got was about 10c…) thats why the gear is so poor. But even with this I have no issues clearing red maps. Now saving for Disfavour.

  7. I highly enjoy this build!

    Though I do not understand why we choose “Avatar of Fire”
    My dps decreases by 6k when I choose that.
    Can someone explain this?

    You are welcome to check out my character (TecTonicKesse) here:
    http://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Krist90/characters

    • The intent behind Avatar of Fire is to convert 100% phys to fire and get extra damage from hatred. With Flammability and some fire pen, we will have some more damage that’s not shown on the tooltip. More % increased elemental damage with attacks on gear helps tremendously as well.

  8. Around what level are you getting yourself Avatar of Fire? I’ve filled out most of the Skill Tree (hit 75 last night) and still haven’t gone up and hit it (I’m still very new to the game). I’m assuming that’s a huge mistake and I should refund the points necessary to go hit it.

    • I got it around 50 or something like that. It’s not a huge mistake, just with it and flammability combo you’d take bosses down quicker.

  9. whats your opinion on the Pyre ring and Meginord’s Vise gauntlets for this build?

  10. Why chieftain and no Juggernaut?, have better endurance charge generation and also defense from them

    • Chieftain is heavily focused on fire damage which this build is all about. While Juggernaut is strong, Chieftain felt more suited for fire conversion build.

  11. I’m curious to see a demonstration of the build. I’m new to the game and went with this build.. Any chance I could get a little walk through on the play style of it? Appreciate your feedback!

    • Hey, it’s pretty straightforward like most 2H RT builds. You use Leap slam to get around, leap into a pack of monsters and kill them. Use Enduring cry from time to time to keep your Endurance charges up. For tougher bosses – curse them with Flammability, drop your Ancestral Warchief totem for extra damage on boss, swap Increased Area of Effect for Concentrated Effect in your gem setup and kill the boss.

  12. Any reason not to run Ngamahu’s on this build?

  13. what kind of abyss jewels should i search for? what base type?

    • You want to go for Murderous Eye jewels. It is known as “Melee” Abyss Jewel as it internally has a focus on melee-related modifiers.

      Ghastly Eye Jewel – It has known as “Summoner” Abyss Jewel internally has a focus on summoner-related modifiers.
      Hypnotic Eye Jewel – It has known as “Caster” Abyss Jewel internally has a focus on caster-related modifiers.
      Searching Eye Jewel – It is known as “Ranged” Abyss Jewel as it internally has a focus on modifiers related to ranged skills.

      Hope it helps. 🙂

  14. hi,

    first, i wanna say thanks for this guild, im Level 86 now and im quite happy with it.
    but i have a few questions

    1. i cant Level up my int and dex gems more than 18 because i dont have enough.
    2. when i activate all abilitys, i have no mana left (hatred is expensive)
    3. i cant use molten shel and dont know why

    is there a Video anywhere where i can learn?

    • 1.) You need to get more dex – options include dex on jewels, rings & amulet, gloves & helm. There are a few dex nodes on skill tree as well.
      2.) If you have Hezmana’s Bloodlust or life & mana leech node taken in duelist area, mana should not be a problem at all.
      3.) Everything that is supported by Cast When Damage taken cannot be cast directly but will automatically proc on a certain threshold of damage taken.

      • thanks, i will go for that, i have a 6 link atziri…
        but first i try to get some life leach, i have all the gear you mentioned, but i still die from time to time… 🙁

  15. When I pop my Atziri’s promise, I don’t see any boost to my damage? how come?

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