POEGuy's Shrapnel Ballista Hierophant Gear & flasks (Poe Curse of the Allflame)

Summary – TL;DR

This build is very easy to set up because it uses many unique items. Relying on uniques allows you to put the build together faster and saves you a lot of hassle when it comes to character optimization.
Since this is an endgame build designed for difficult content, keep in mind that it’s not cheap! You should have a good amount of Divine Orbs (minimum 150 as for Patch 3.29) and a character above level 94 before starting this setup. I’m mentioning these two requirements to help players transition smoothly into the build without any issues.

The setup should look something like this:

Item Slot	Item Name	Rarity	Notes
Head	Crown of Eyes	Unique
Amulet	Astramentis	Unique	We have several much more powerful amulet options available for min-maxing. Scroll Down to learn more.
Chest	The Iron Fortress	Unique
Gloves	Maligaro's Virtuosity	Unique
Boots	Replica Alberon's Warpath	Unique
Belt	Crafted Hunter influenced Heavy Belt	Rare	Scroll Down to learn more.
Rings	Crafted Helical Rings	Rare	Scroll Down to learn more.
Weapon	Replica Iron Commander	Unique
Quiver	Crafted Penetrating Arrow Quiver	Rare	Scroll Down to learn more.

We are a Strength stacker – don’t forget that. The more Strength you have, the more Damage you’ll deal and the tankier you’ll become. Most of our items revolve, in some way, around Strength.

Armour Pieces

Helmet

For the helmet, we use Crown of Eyes. The most important modifier is: “Attacks have 150% Arcane Might.” This converts all of our Spell Damage gained from the IRON WILL Keystone and the Large Cluster Jewel into Attack Damage at an increased value. It also provides a much-needed Accuracy modifier, so try to get one with a decent roll.

If you want to min-max the build later, look for useful corruptions such as +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems, +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems, % increased Maximum Life, Chaos Resistance, and similar modifiers.

Body Armour

For the body armour, we use The Iron Fortress. This armour grants up to 120 flat Strength, a chance to block Attack Damage based on our Strength, and a solid Armour rating.
The Iron Fortress also has synergy with our Crown of Eyes helmet, thanks to its final modifier:“Strength’s Damage Bonus instead grants 3% increased Melee Physical Damage per 10 Strength.” This modifier enhances the % Melee Physical Damage bonus we get from Strength. All of this bonus damage is then converted into Spell Damage by the IRON WILL keystone, which is further converted back into Attack Damage by Crown of Eyes through the modifier:“Increases and Reductions to Spell Damage also apply to Attacks at 150% of their value.” If you need a visual explanation of this interaction, click HERE
Do not use the Foulborn version! Use the regular body armour instead.

If you want to min-max the build later, look for either 1 to Level of Socketed Gems or +2 to Socketed Projectile Gems corruption – this is because Shrapnel Ballista at level 22 grants an additional totem

Gloves

For the gloves, we use Maligaro's Virtuosity. These gloves set your Critical Strike Multiplier to 300%, which provides a significant damage boost. Because of this modifier, we won’t invest in Critical Strike Multiplier on our items, skill tree, or gems (it would be wasted entirely). Once you equip these gloves, any additional Crit Multi becomes useless. They also provide some Dexterity, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance.

If you want to min-max the build later, look for useful corruptions such as % Increased Attack Speed, Attacks Have %# to Critical Hit Chance, %Increased Maximum Life, +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges, and similar modifiers.

Boots

For the boots, we use Replica Alberon's Warpath. These boots grant a significant amount of chaos damage based on our Strength and up to 18% Increased Strength. It might sound strange, but a large portion of our Damage comes from these boots! The more Strength you have, the more flat added Chaos Damage to Attacks you gain. They also provide 25% increased movement speed and some Chaos Resistance. It’s important to note that while wearing these boots, you can only deal Chaos Damage.

If the boots are corrupted, pay close attention to the last line, as many of them are bricked and will cause you to lose a significant amount of DPS. The last line must say at least “Adds 1 to 80 Chaos Damage to Attacks per 80 Strength.” If the value is lower than 80, do not buy them!

Weapon

For the bow, we use Replica Iron Commander. This is a vital piece for the build, mainly because of this line: “Shrapnel Ballista has +1 to Maximum Number of Summoned Totems per 200 Strength “. Simply put, the more Strength you have, the more Ballista totems you can summon. Be sure to keep an eye on your Strength at all times and aim for key totem breakpoints (1800 str, 2000 str, 2200 str). As you might have guessed, getting extra totems is a big deal!
Remember to use Blessed Orb on the implicit.

Quiver

For the quiver, we use a crafted Penetrating Arrow Quiver. We need this base to get an extra +1 Pierce effect. The following modifiers are mandatory on your quiver:
“Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow”
“Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets”
Tier 1 Strength
The remaining modifiers are up to you. You can choose from Life, Incresed Damage with Bows Skills, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, or Resistances, depending on what your character needs.

If you don’t want to buy it from trade, I’ll show you how to craft it:

STEP#1 Buy a Penetrating Arrow Quiver with item level 81 or higher. Make sure it is uncorrupted, unfractured, and has no influence, as this will be the base we’ll craft on.
STEP#2 Buy and apply an Essence of Insanity on it to guarantee the “Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets” modifier
STEP#3 Make sure your quiver has exactly 4 explicit modifiers. If it has 5 or more, use an Orb of Annulment until only 4 remain. If the “Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets” modifier is removed, go back to STEP #2.
STEP#4 Buy a Fracturing Orb and attempt to fracture the “Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets” modifier. There is a 25% chance of success. If it fails, go back to STEP #1 and repeat the process until you successfully fracture this modifier.
STEP#5 Buy Deafening Essence of Rage and use it on your fractured quiver until you hit the “Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow” modifier. If you’re on a limited budget, you can stop here. Otherwise, proceed to STEP #6.
STEP#6 Keep in mind that you can force Maximum Life and Increased Damage with Bow Skills as prefix modifiers. To do this, you’ll need at least one open suffix. If you don’t have one, use an Orb of Annulment and try to remove a modifier. If it removes Strength or Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow, you’ll need to go back to STEP #5.
STEP#7 Go to your Crafting Bench and craft “Cannot roll Attack Modifiers” on the open Suffix.
STEP#8 Use two Exalted Orb to guarantee Maximum Life and Increased Damage with Bow Skills as your remaining prefix modifiers.
STEP#9 Remove the “Cannot roll Attack Modifiers” crafted mod (with the Crafting Bench) and craft something useful like Resistances or Attack Speed.

*Remember that you can use the special crafting bench from the Patch 3.29 league mechanic to fish for better outcomes.

Jewellery

Amulet

For the amulet, we use Astramentis. This will solve all your attribute problems (no need to worry about Dexterity and Intelligence) and will also give you a big Strength boost. Make sure to buy one with good rolls, use a Blessed Orb on the implicit, apply 20x Intrinsic Catalyst, and anoint it.

For the anoint it is mandatory to use: Watchtowers (Indigo, Silver, Silver)

*Know that for min-maxing, you can go for a strength stacking Simplex Amulet. However, these are typically much more expensive and harder to find than an Astramentis (To learn more scroll down to section 8)

Rings

For the rings, we use either Helical Ring(best) or rare rings with “to All Attributes” fractured modifier(budget). The following modifiers are mandatory on your rings:
Tier 1 Strength
Tier 1 to All Attributes
The remaining modifiers are up to you. You can choose from Life, Chaos Damage to Attacks, or Resistances, depending on what your character needs.

I’ll show you how to craft a budget ring

STEP#1 Buy a rare ring with the following fractured modifier: “12-16 to All Attributes”. Make sure that the ring is item level 75 or higher. Make sure it is uncorrupted, and has no influence, as this will be the base we’ll craft on.
STEP#2 Buy Deafening Essence of Rage and use it on your fractured ring until you hit some extra useful modifiers like Maximum Life, Resistances, depending on what your character needs.
STEP #3 Finish the craft by applying 20x Intrinsic Catalyst to the ring. If you have any open modifiers, use the Crafting Bench to add another useful modifier. This is a very easy craft.

*Remember that you can use the special crafting bench from the Patch 3.29 league mechanic to fish for better outcomes.
**If you have a very expensive ring with incredible modifiers, consider using a Kalandra's Touch to mirror it to your other ring slot.

Belt

For the belt, we use a Hunter or Elder Influenced Heavy Belt. Just get the base, and you’ll craft the rest yourself. The following modifiers are mandatory on your belt:
Tier 1 % Increased Attributes
Tier 1 Strength
The remaining modifiers are up to you. You can choose from Life, # to Armour, or Resistances, depending on what your character needs.

If you don’t want to buy it from trade, I’ll show you how to craft it:

STEP#1 Buy a Heavy Belt with Hunter or Elder Influence. Make sure that the belt is item level 75 or higher. Make sure it is uncorrupted, as this will be the base we’ll craft on.
STEP#2 Buy Deafening Essence of Rage and start rolling until you spawn the Tier 1 % Increased Attributes modifier
STEP#3 Use Orb of Annulment to remove unwanted modifiers, and Exalted Orb to add new useful ones (Remember that you can use the special crafting bench from the Patch 3.29 league mechanic to fish for better outcomes.). If the Strength or Increased Attributes modifier is removed, go back to STEP #2.
STEP#4 Finish the craft by applying 20x Intrinsic Catalyst to the belt. Use a Divine Orb until you roll 14% Increased Attributes. Use Blessed Orb until your implicit shows “42 to Strength”. If you have any open modifiers, use the Crafting Bench to add another useful modifier. This is a very easy craft.

Jewels

To avoid mistakes, try to place the jewels exactly where the Skill Tree in Path of Building (PoB) indicates (Remember, you can find the PoB here).

1. Rain of Splinters (Grants us +2 Extra Projectiles)
2. The Light of Meaning with 4% Chaos Resistance ( this will solve our Chaos Resistance problems )
3. Watcher's Eye with “+#% to Chaos Resistance while affected by Purity of Elements”. Other modifiers that you can look for: “7% or 8% “chance to Evade Attack Hits while affected by Grace”, “+#% to all maximum Elemental Resistances while affected by Purity of Elements”
4. Emperor's Mastery (If it’s too expensive, you can temporarily use a rare jewel with % increased Life, flat Strength, and some Resistances; you can also use temporarily an Emperor's Might jewel)
5. Lethal Pride with a couple of 5% Strength Nodes / 20 to Strength nodes (If you don’t know how to buy one, I’ve made a mini guide HERE )
6. 2x Split Personality with +5 to Strength and +40 to Accuracy. (The Accuracy modifier on these jewels is very important, as it helps us cap our hit chance!)
7. Medium Cluster Jewel with the notable “Sleepless Sentries” (Gives us permanent Onslaught while mapping!) / Ideal jewel would have for the second passive: “Ancestral Reach” (lets us place the totems farther away from us) and be 4 passives
   
8. Large Cluster Jewel with 12 Passive nodes. The Large Cluster Jewel base needs to say “Added Small Passive Skills grant: 10% increased Spell Damage”
   
   The Large Cluster jewel needs to have a high Strength roll paired with the % increased Effect modifier. In addition to these two mandatory mods, you can look for: All Attributes, Life, % increased Damage, % Elemental Resistances, % Chaos Resistance, etc.
   **Try to prioritize Resistances on your Large Cluster Jewel. You can roll a single Elemental Resistance or All Elemental Resistances. This is one of the best places to get extra resistances for the build.
9. Inertia jewel with 24 Strength roll (place it near the Elemental Equilibrium Keystone jewel socket).

Flasks

For the Non- Mageblood version

Slot	Flask	Notes
1	Divine Life Flask	*You need to get one with the “Grants Immunity to Corrupted Blood..” modifier and Instant Recovery
2	Diamond Flask	Boosts our Critical Strike chance
3	Quartz Flask	Grants us Phasing and increases our Spell Suppression chance
4	Quicksilver Flask	Helps with Movement Speed
5	Sulphur Flask	Boosts our damage	(You can replace this with Bottled Faith, or, if you want even more defenses, you can use a Progenesis)

Suffixes and Prefixes on the flasks are very flexible. You can roll the flasks yourself using Orb of Alterations.
For the Suffixes look for: “”% Increased Armour During Effect, % Increased Critical Strike Chance During Effect, % Increased Evasion Rating During Effect, % Increased Movement Speed During Effect”
For the Prefixes look for: “%increased Duration”, “%Increased Charge Recovery”, “%Increased Maximum Charges”.

[REMINDER] Apply quality to your flasks! All flasks should have 20% quality. You apply quality using Glassblower's Bauble
Automate your flasks! All the Magic Utility Flasks should have the Enchant: “Used When Charges Reach Full”
You can get this enchant either by applying Instilling Orb or by using your Crafting Bench.

For the Mageblood version

Slot	Flask	Notes
1	Divine Life Flask	*You need to get one with the “Grants Immunity to Corrupted Blood..” modifier and Instant Recovery
2	Topaz Flask	Roll for 70% increased effect enchant (use Enkindling Orb)
3	Sapphire Flask	Roll for 70% increased effect enchant (use Enkindling Orb)
4	Quicksilver Flask	Roll for 70% increased effect enchant (use Enkindling Orb)
5	Ruby Flask	Roll for 70% increased effect enchant (use Enkindling Orb)

Suffixes and Prefixes on the flasks are fixed this time! You will buy them with these specific modifiers:
For the Suffixes, look for: “”% Increased Armour During Effect, % Increased Critical Strike Chance During Effect, % Increased Evasion Rating During Effect, % Additional Elemental Resistances During Effect”. It doesn’t matter which flask has each of these effects: what matters is that you have all four of these modifiers (and with good rolls also)
For the Prefixes, look for: “25% Increased Effect”

More Maxing

Here are some additional upgrades you can make to push the build even further. These upgrades aren’t mandatory in any way; I’m just mentioning them for those who enjoy the build and want to push it even further!

In Patch 3.26, they added the Bound by Destiny jewel. This item can provide an additional 15% Strength if you have two Warlord-influenced items equipped.
The most convenient item slots to obtain this influence are the gloves, the quiver, and the amulet.

• For the gloves, all you need to do is buy any random uncorrupted Deerskin Gloves with Warlord influence (if they don’t have influence, you’ll need to slam a Warlord's Exalted Orb on them). Once the gloves have the influence, go to the Crafting Bench and select “Reroll the Rarity of a non-unique item,” then use it repeatedly until they transform into Maligaro's Virtuosity (the influence will be retained).
• For the amulet, note that the standard Simplex Amulet used for strength stacking already comes with Warlord influence applied.
• For the quiver, you’ll need to buy any random Penetrating Arrow Quiver and an item level above 70. Then, spam Deafening Essence of Rage on the quiver until you hit the ‘Bow attacks fire an additional arrow’ modifier. At the end, if you are an experienced player you can do some meta-crafting, or, if you are newer to the game, simply craft something useful with the bench. You will finish this craft with a Warlord's Exalted Orb, which will guarantee Warlord influence on the item.
  Ideally, you don’t want to use a quiver, since you’ll lose +2 Pierce, which will make your map clear speed a little slower.

Note that these uniques can have corruptions; here are the ones I recommend:

• For the gloves: Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance for Attacks, Maximum Frenzy Charges or % increased Maximum Life
• For the helmet: +2 to AoE Gems, +2 to Aura Gems, Chaos Resistance or % increased Maximum Life
• For the boots: % Movement Speed, % Spell Suppression, Chaos Resistance, Elemental Resistances or % increased Maximum Life // Or Corrupted from Volatile Vaal Orb with a roll higher than 1 to 80 Chaos Damage to attacks per 80 Strength.
• For the body armour: 1 to Level of Socketed Gems or +2 to Socketed Projectile Gems (remember that Shrapnel Ballista at level 22 grants an additional totem)

Lastly, if you decide to buy a simplex amulet, make sure it has the right modifiers! Check the image below.