Righteous Fire

Righteous Fire is an unusual main skill — it is self-cast and runs as a permanent fire-degen aura, so there is no attack, no projectile, and no crit swing to track. The character sets themselves on fire; that burn is amplified into a scaling aura that chews through every monster standing near you. DPS comes from the character's own internal fire damage being multiplied, not from any weapon hit, which is why the reference carries a Void Sceptre with fire-DoT-multiplier rolls instead of a physical mainhand. The main 6-link lives in Cloak of Flame and runs Righteous Fire + Burning Damage + Elemental Focus + Swift Affliction + Efficacy + Lifetap — every support here is a pure fire-DoT or burning-damage multiplier, and Lifetap solves mana cost on the self-cast.

The damage chain is: base Righteous Fire burn → Purity of Fire aura lifts max fire resist above 88% with 168 overcap, letting RF's self-damage penalty be absorbed while the offensive burn scales off the fire-res-over-cap line from Holy Fire and tree mods → Cloak of Flame also converts 40% of physical damage taken as fire, layering defence with offence on the same chest. Secondary fire pressure comes from Fire Trap (helmet-linked with Trap and Mine Damage + Swift Affliction) for boss burn bursts, and Flammability curse on hit chops enemy fire resistance. The tree threads Marauder life-and-fire notables — Holy Fire, Breath of Flames, Divine Judgement, Arsonist, Warrior's Blood, Constitution, Heart of the Warrior — and the single Chieftain ascendancy notable allocated at this point is Tasalio, Cleansing Water for the 8% life regen line that keeps the self-ignite sustainable.

Defence is the classic RF stack: 5.7k life, 60% physical damage reduction from 6.3k armour + 3 Endurance charges via Enduring Cry, 88% max fire resistance (with 168% overcap), and 4% life regen routed through Tasalio, Cleansing Water and tree regen mods — the regen has to outpace the RF self-degen with a healthy surplus, and it does. Immortal Flesh belt contributes 400 flat life regen and -45 physical damage taken from attacks, at the cost of -16% to all elemental resistances which the build offsets with helmet and ring rolls. The Ebony Tower Shield gives 43% block as a bonus physical layer. Spell suppress is 0 — the archetype doesn't touch suppress; it trades that pillar for armour + max-res + block + regen. Pantheon is Brine King / Abberath.

You walk forward and things die around you. No aiming, no cast rhythm, no combo. Shield Charge (linked with Faster Attacks + Frostblink) handles traversal, Enduring Cry refreshes Endurance charges and taps life regen, and Fire Trap goes down under rare packs or bosses for an extra burn layer. The rhythm is steady movement and occasional flask presses rather than twitch response. Single-target is entirely passive — stand in melee range and the aura burn finishes the job.

Nebulis is the signature offensive pivot — its line "10% increased Elemental Damage per 1% Fire, Cold, or Lightning Resistance above 75%" turns the overcapped fire resistance that Purity of Fire + ascendancy + Cloak of Flame's +75% fire res had been producing anyway into a pure damage multiplier. With fire res over-cap sitting at 172% and cold/lightning both at 23% overcap, the sceptre stacks hundreds of percent more elemental damage before any other multiplier enters the equation. Voll's Vision helmet grants permanent Inner Conviction and fortification on hit, and Annihilation's Approach layers kill-explosion chain-clear on top of the aura.

The main Righteous Fire 6-link stays in Cloak of Flame with the same support stack — Burning Damage + Swift Affliction + Efficacy + Elemental Focus + Increased Area of Effect + Lifetap — because RF's scaling ceiling is bound by burn multipliers, not by adding more elements. Aura slots carry Purity of Fire, Malevolence, Flesh and Stone, and Summon Skitterbots, with Flammability in a Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call setup in the gloves as both curse-delivery and defensive panic button. Ascendancy is now the full Chieftain lineup: Hinekora, Death's Fury, Valako, Storm's Embrace, Tasalio, Cleansing Water, Ramako, Sun's Light. Note that despite the gear upgrade the reference's 337k DPS sits close to the early-mapping number — RF does not scale via crit chance, crit multiplier, attack speed, or added damage supports. The sheet grows via burn multiplier, fire pen, and Nebulis's overcap line, all of which are incremental rather than multiplicative explosions. What actually grew is the defensive and ignite-propagation ceiling, not raw DPS printed on the character sheet.

Glancing Blows combined with the Crested Tower Shield unlocks 75% attack block and 75% spell block — the double block cap is the endgame defensive identity. 68% physical damage reduction from 7.9k armour and Valako, Storm's Embrace, 90% max fire/cold/lightning resistance with 172% fire overcap, and 2.9k life regen per second layered with Immortal Flesh's flat regen. EHP 34k looks lower than early-mapping's 37k, but that number is misleading — it doesn't reflect Glancing Blows's double-block halving reads, nor Hinekora's 3.28 ascendancy-triggered damage mitigation on big hits. The one compromise is 1% chaos resistance — the reference intentionally dumps chaos res to squeeze other stats in, and pantheon shifts to Brine King / Gruthkul to partially plug that gap. CWDT + Immortal Call catches physical spike moments.

Same walk-forward feel, now with tank-level reassurance. Shield Charge (Faster Attacks + Lifetap) traverses, Enduring Cry keeps Endurance charges topped on rare-pack entry (only 1 in the snapshot because the reference was idle), and Fire Trap still handles priority boss burn. The double 75% block is the biggest felt change — hits that would have chunked the early-mapping character glance off entirely, and the on-block line from the shield ("Recover 5% of Life when you Block") turns block events into partial heals.

The full armour-stacking Chieftain identity emerges. 1.08M DPS, 85k EHP, 9.2k life — the life pool nearly doubles from the endgame reference while DPS triples. Nebulis continues to scale off overcapped elemental resistance, now amplified by Mageblood keeping four max-rolled utility flasks permanently up: a Cinderswallow Urn (life-on-ignited-kill + 15% more damage against ignited enemies — every enemy is ignited via RF's burn), a Quicksilver for movement, a Granite for +3000 armour, and a Gold Flask for rarity while mapping. The Righteous Fire 6-link shifts to Swift Affliction + Elemental Focus + Increased Area of Effect + Burning Damage + Lifetap in the Cloak of Flame — large AoE becomes the clear multiplier at pinnacle scale.

The helmet is a crafted Archdemon Crown (Empyrean Peak) with the rare prefix "Socketed Gems deal 30% more Elemental Damage" and +2 skill gems — the Fire Trap 4-link socketed there hits harder than the main 6-link for single-target burn bursts. Gloves (Victory Palm, Precursor Gauntlets) carry the unusual "Ignites you inflict spread to other Enemies within 1.2 metres" — RF ignites every standing enemy so this effectively doubles the clear radius. The unique Kalandra's Touch ring mirrors the other ring slot (Armageddon Circle, a high-life/crafted Cogwork Ring with fire pen + resistances), effectively doubling every stat on that ring — the classic Mageblood-era optimisation. The tree picks up The Adorned unique jewel which multiplies the magnitude of every magic jewel socketed — the eight Vivid Viridian / Crimson "of the Phoenix" / "of Zealousness" magic jewels on the tree each contribute max fire res, burning damage multi, or life regen, and The Adorned scales all of them at once. Cluster jewels add Sadist, Burning Bright, and life-regen notables. Spell suppress finally climbs to 24% as a small chaos-defense bonus from boot rolls; it isn't the build's defensive plan.

The pinnacle armour-stacker RF defensive profile: 72% physical damage reduction from 10.3k armour + Mageblood's Granite Flask uptime + 3 Endurance charges, 75% attack block + 75% spell block from Glancing Blows and the Ezomyte Tower Shield, 93% max fire resistance with 198% overcap, and 3.4k life regen layered with life regen flasks and ascendancy. Chaos resistance caps at 75% — the endgame's 1% is fully solved here through Victory Palm gloves (+33% chaos res), rolled rings, and Shakari pantheon. Mageblood's Ruby Flask equivalent (via magic flask mods — actually no Ruby in this setup, the magic res comes from rings, boots, and Purity of Fire) plus 3 Endurance charges sustained through Enduring Cry mean physical one-shots are nearly impossible. Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call absorbs the uncounterable ones. Brine King remains the major pantheon; Shakari covers chaos.

The true armour-stacker Chieftain power fantasy. Packs evaporate on approach — RF's aura + Victory Palm's ignite spread + Increased Area of Effect means a rare dying in one corner of the screen ignites the rest through chain-ignite propagation. Bosses die to Fire Trap's burst plus sustained aura pressure. Mageblood removes every flask-timing anxiety; Glancing Blows + 75% double block plus 72% phys DR plus 85k EHP means combat feels like wading through enemies rather than dancing around them. The character's speed cap is now tied to Shield Charge and map traversal, not clear speed — every pack is already dead when you arrive.