Intro & build description
Penance Brand was one of the skills introduced in Harvest challenge league. This skill offers unique playstyle while allowing you to quickly clear maps and with some gear investment, kill all the endgame bosses as well. Build utilizes unique jewels like Intuitive Leap and Thread of Hope to navigate certain skill tree nodes, a few cluster jewels and a lot of rare items.
Build Pros
- Fairly tanky - has over 6000 life and 1000+ energy shield
- Uses a lot of rare items, so it's great as a league starter
- Scales well with currency invested
Build Cons
- Reflect is a problem
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
[3.12] Skill Tree - the unallocated points go to Cluster Jewels that you can see in PoB [3.13] Skill Tree Path of BuildingBandits
Bandits Quest Choice |
Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
---|---|
Labyrinth 1 | Righteous Providence |
Labyrinth 2 | Inevitable Judgement |
Labyrinth 3 | Sanctuary |
Endgame Labyrinth | Pious Path |

Skill gem setup
Helm
Precision (LVL 1)
Immortal Call (LVL 9)
Vaal Cold Snap (LVL 11)
Cast When Damage Taken Support (LVL 7)
Body Armor
Penance Brand
Swiftbrand Support
Energy Leech Support
Awakened Controlled Destruction Support
Awakened Added Fire Damage Support
Inspiration Support
Gloves
Steelskin (LVL 20)
Cast When Damage Taken Support (LVL 20)
Summon Lightning Golem (LVL 20)
Enfeeble (LVL 20)
Boots
Herald of Purity
Herald of Ash
Enlighten (Ideally LVL 4, but LVL 3 works as well)
Zealotry
2h Weapon
Flame Dash
Second Wind Support (Linked to Flame Dash)
Faster Casting Support (Linked to Flame Dash)
Wave of Conviction
Awakened Curse on Hit Support (Linked to Wave of Conviction)
Assassin's Mark (Linked to Wave of Conviction)
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.tradeHelmet
Rare Hubris Circlet with Elder InfluenceLook for Hubris Circlet with Elder Influence.
Mods to look for would be high life, resistances and physical / fire damage to spells. You could pretty reliably craft something like that yourself with 3 socket resonators socketed with pristine, prismatic and aetheric fossils.
Body Armour
Rare Vaal Regalia with Shaper InfluenceLook for Vaal Regalia with Shaper Influence and item level 84+.
Use Aetheric and Pristine fossils to craft it – look for Spells have +(1.1–1.5)% to Critical Strike Chance mod, together with at least 100 life. Ideally, the item should have 1 open prefix so you could craft Gravicius signature mod Gain 10% of Maximum Life as Extra Maximum Energy Shield on crafting bench.
Gloves
Rare Fingerless Silk GlovesLook for Fingerless Silk gloves with at least 70 life, high resistances and 1 open prefix.
Craft 25% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage on crafting bench.
Boots
Rare Energy Shield BootsLook for rare energy shield boots with at least 80 life, 30% increased movement speed and some resistances.
If you have some currency to spare, you can get ones with Tailwind on critical strike + 30% movement speed and life, but those will cost you a few ex minimum.
Left Ring
Rare Two-Stone RingLook for rare Two-Stone Ring with at least 65 life, 7% increased cast speed and resistances.
You can also craft adds #-# fire / lightning damage on it.
Right Ring
Rare Opal RingLook for Rare Opal Ring with at least 65 life, some energy shield and resistances.
You can also craft adds #-# fire / lightning damage on it.
Amulet
Rare Amulet with Warlord InfluenceLook for Rare Amulet with Warlord Influence. Mods to look for would be global critical strike multiplier, gain %of physical damage as extra fire/lightning damage and +1 to level of all spell skill gems, but all those mods together would be insanely expensive.
Belt
Rare Stygian ViseLook for rare Stygian Vise with at least 85 life and high resistances.
You could craft %increased damage on it using crafting bench.
2Hand Weapon
Rare Staff with Shaper InfluenceLook for rare staff with Shaper Influence and at least item level 83.
Mods to look for:
1.) Increased Spell damage
2.) Increased Cast speed
3.) Critical strike chance for spells
4.) Gain % of physical as extra damage of an element
5.) + level to all physical spell skill gems
Obviously staff with all of these mods would be really expensive, so go for spell damage, cast speed and a third mod of previously mentioned ones for a solid staff.
Jewel
Unique JewelsBuild uses several unique jewels.
1.) Intuitive Leap – put it into the socket on the right of Instability node.
Allocate Brand Equity, Enigmatic Defence, Mystic Bulwark, Blast Radius, Prodigal Perfection and Discord Artisan.
2.) Thread of Hope – put it into socket near Devotion node, allocate Divine Wrath, Divine Judgement and Divine Fury nodes.
3.) Watcher’s Eye – if you can find one with good mod while affected by Zealotry, get that. If not, use rare jewel instead.
Jewel
Rare JewelsOn rare jewels look for following mods:
1.) Increased maximum life / +to maximum life / energy shield
2.) x-x Physical damage to spells
3.) Damage if you’ve killed recently
4.) %increased Global Physical damage
5.) Critical strike multiplier with elemental skills / global critical strike multiplier
6.) Resistances / Attributes if you need them
Build also uses cluster jewels with following notables:
1.) Mage Hunter
2.) Conjured Wall
3.) Thaumophage
4.) Brand Loyalty
5.) Holy Conquest
You can see more information about jewels in Path of Building.
Flask
Flask SetupBuild uses following flasks:
1.) Divine life flask with instant recovery and bleed removal
2.) Diamond Flask with curse removal
3.) Atziri’s Promise
4.) Taste of Hate
5.) Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline