Smith of Kitava Lightning Spear Endgame Build

Build Introduction

This is a fairly tanky setup that can reach high levels of rarity without requiring absurd amounts of currency from the player. Not only that, but it also offers good defenses, solid AoE clears, and is easy to play.

The Smith of Kitava ascendancy allows players to cap their elemental resistances quite easily, making it easier to find cheaper rarity items. Lightning Spear is one of the best skills in Patch 0.2.0, so we’ll stick with that. Defenses are also excellent: this build comes with 90% fire, cold, and lightning resistance, capped chaos resistance, 30% of physical damage taken as elemental, a strong Enfeeble-Blasphemy aura setup, and some armour.

This build was designed to be a fast mapper with a lot of rarity. Use it for magic finding in Waystones 15 and 16. Ideal content for this would be Breach farming. This build is not a pinnacle boss farmer! It’s simply an effective mapper.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Video Guide

**video guide will be added soon!

Until I finish the video guide, you can watch the build preview if you’d like (there’s plenty of gameplay footage). Link HERE.

Build Mechanics

Like always, I did my best to simplify things so that the build will be casual player-friendly. Our main source of damage will be Lightning Spear. The skill tree, gems, and items were tailored in a way that makes this skill shine. With my setup, there’s no need to swap to Storm Lance for single-target damage. This is a lazy and effective build.

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Skill Rotation

The skill rotation is very easy! All that you have to do is move around and attack with Lightning Spear. For map bosses or harder rares, you can use Sniper’s Mark in order to boost your damage. Moving around will grant you Volt charges that will give you extra chains and lightning damage. Everything else is automated.

1. Lightning Spear
2. Sniper’s Mark (optional)
3. Orb of Storms (just for bosses)

We use Orb of Storms in order to trigger Font of Blood and Font of Rage ( that will give us Rage generation and extra Life Regeneration ).

We use Sniper’s Mark in order to generate Frenzy Charges. Lightning Spear consumes Frenzy Charges in order to deal 50% more damage.

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Gameplay Tips

The biggest tip I can give you is to move around before engaging the enemy. Moving around will grant you Volt charges that will give you extra chains and lightning damage. With maximum Volt charges, and if you’ve followed this guide properly, one attack will be enough to clear the entire screen!

[IMPORTANT REMINDER] For safe mapping, make sure to use the provided REGEX filter to sort out all the dangerous modifiers that can make the build squishy! Also, check the Common Mistakes section in this written guide; you can find it HERE.

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Skill and Support Gems

The following Support Gems are listed in order of socket priority for each Skill.

Skill Gems	Support 1	Support 2	Support 3	Support 4	Support 5
Lightning Spear	Volt	Primal Armament	Lightning Infusion	Execute	Overextend
Sniper’s Mark	Arcane Tempo	Ingenuity	Profusion	Lifetap	–
Orb of Storms	Font of Rage	Font of Blood–	Persistence	–	–

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Spirit Gems

The Spirit Gem setup requires a minimum of 240 total Spirit. Completing the first and second bosses in Normal and Cruel difficulty in the campaign rewards 100 base Spirit. For the rest of 140, you will equip a rare scepter.

Spirit Gems	Support 1	Support 2	Support 3	Support 4	Support 5
Blasphemy	Enfeeble	Magnified Effect	Ritualistic Curse	Heightened Curse	–
Herald of Thunder	Innervate	Elemental Focus	Cannibalism	Maim (optional)	–
Attrition (level 14)	Clarity	Precision	Vitality	Strong Hearted (optional)	–

Blasphemy turns the Enfeeble curse into an aura. As you move, enemies will be cursed with Enfeeble, causing them to deal less damage. We use Magnified Effect and Ritualistic Curse in order to bump the area of effect. We use Heightened Curse in order to boost the effectiveness of this setup.

Important Reminders: Applying 20% quality on Blasphemy will reduce the Spirit reservation. Applying 20% quality on Enfeeble will raise the curse effect. Also the higher your INTELLIGENCE is, the higher uncut spirit/skill gems you can use.

Use a level 14 Uncut Spirit Gem for Attrition. We don’t want to invest a lot of points into STR.

*There is currently a bug that allows players to use gems like Vitality, Clarity, Precision, Cannibalism, etc., inside the Purity of Fire aura (granted by the sceptre) without any Spirit reservation. Adding these gems there saves you 55 Spirit, which you can invest elsewhere. This is an unintended mechanic, so I’ll mention it here but won’t include it in the main guide – it will likely be fixed eventually.

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Ascendancy

Smith of Kitava is an interesting Ascendancy class that allows us to easily cap our resistances at 90%. Not only that, but it also features a customizable node called Smith’s Masterwork, which lets us choose four benefits to empower our body armour. For “Smith’s Masterwork” node to work, you must use a normal rarity body armour.

The ascendancies must be unlocked in this order:

• Coal Stoker ( Modifiers to Fire Resistance also grant Cold & Lightning Resistance at 50%of their value. Example: If you get 80% Fire Resistance, you will also receive 40% Cold and Lightning Resistance)
• Forged in Flame ( Modifiers to Maximum Fire Resistance also grant Maximum Cold and Lightning Resistance. Example: if you have 87% maximum Fire Resistance, this will also bump your Maximum Cold and Lightning Resistances to 87%)
• Smith’s Masterwork (Allows you to customize your body armour. You have 12 options to choose from and can only use normal body armours)
• pick#1: Leather Bindings (Regenerate 5% of Maximum life per second)
• pick#2: Molten Symbol (25% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire damage)
• pick#3: Kitavan Engraving (15% increased Maximum Life)
• pick#4:Tantalum Alloy (75% Fire Resistance: Taking this node will grant you nearly 40% Cold and Lightning Resistance and also increase your Maximum Fire Resistance by 2%. It’s a smart way to cap your resistances without allocating extra modifiers on your rare items, making it easier to focus on good rarity on your gear)

For this build, it’s essential to reach 90% maximum Fire Resistance. You can achieve this fairly easily by stacking a high amount of Fire Resistance (thanks to the Unnatural Resilience Skill Tree notable, which converts every 40% of uncapped Fire Resistance into 1% maximum Fire Resistance). You can also add some Soul Core of Puhuarte (+1% maximum Fire Resistance) or Rubies with the “+1% maximum Fire Resistance” modifier (see the Jewel section for details).

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Passive Skill Tree and Path of Building

This is an endgame build, and the ideal level for this setup is 91. However, if you’re lacking Skill Tree points, you can temporarily unspec the nodes leading to Forces of Nature and Flash Storm. Just remember to allocate them back once you reach level 91!

POB link for the normal version of the build HERE. Remember that the “PoB Community Fork” program for Path of Exile 2 still needs some work. It doesn’t track everything properly.

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Gear

For your rares, you want Evasion, Armor/Evasion, or Evasion/Energy Shield base items. You don’t want items with a lot of STRENGTH requirement! Remember that we will allocate the Iron Reflexes Keystone that will turn all Evasion into Armour. Don’t go above 80 STR!

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Affixes	Notes
Helmet (The Deepest Tower – Unique)		Mandatory item! It grants us Lucky Hits and a significant damage boost. Look for one with a good Chaos Resistance roll – If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket
Body Armor (“Rambler Jacket” – NORMAL QUALITY base)	No affixes. (because of “Smith’s Masterwork” ascendancy node)	– There are multiple body armour bases we can use here (Rambler Jacket, Falconer’s Jacket, Dastard Armour), but I recommend sticking with a Rambler Jacket, as we need high Chaos Resistance. – If you decide to go for corruption, try to get one with “+(13–19)% to Chaos Resistance” or one with an extra socket. – PRO TIP: You can corrupt one yourself! know that the probability to get an extra socket is pretty high, so there is no need to overpay!
Gloves (Rare Gloves)	1. Maximum Life 2. Added lightning Damage to attacks 3. Added physical damage to attacks 4. Attributes ( DEX or INT)	Gloves are a great slot for gaining extra damage. Compared to rings, it’s much cheaper to find gloves with both “added Lightning Damage to Attacks” and “added Physical Damage to Attacks”. – If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket
Boots (Rare Boots)	1. Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Rarity 4. Fire Resistance (optional)	Get boots with high movement speed ( 25%-35% ), life and some rarity. If you still need to cap your resistances, look for some fire resistance too ( check the “Coal Stoker” ascendancy node ) – If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket – MUST socket inside Ox Talismans
Main Hand (Tangletongue – Unique)		Mandatory item! Look for one with a high critical hit chance roll. – I highly suggest that you look for one with “Adds (1–2) to (29–43) Lightning Damage” corruption or one with an extra socket (inside the sockets you will use “Greater Storm Runes”). – PRO TIP: You can also corrupt one yourself. Just don’t forget to apply 20% quality and also use an “Omen of Corruption” before the Vaal Orb.
Off Hand (Rare Sceptre)	1. Must have “Purity of Fire aura” implicit 2. minimum 140 Spirit 3. Some INT 4 Some Mana (optional)	We will use a random sceptre with the “Grants Skill: Level # Purity of Fire” implicit. This will help us cap our resistances and raise our maximum fire resistance (check the “Unnatural Resilience” node). Get one with minimum 140 spirit so that you can use all our spirit gem setups. INT will help you use higher level Enfeeble & Blasphemy gems. Maximum Mana or Increased Presence Area of Effect is also nice to have (but not mandatory) – socket inside FOX Talismans (20% Increased Presence Area of Effect)
Amulet (Rare Amulet)	1. Maximum Life 2. Rarity 3. Critical Damage Bonus or Critical Hit Chance 4. Fire Resistance (optional)	For the amulet, anoint “Wild Storm”. This is a powerful notable that has great synergy with our Lucky Hits setup! The amulet is also a great place to get a lot of rarity!
Rings	1. Maximum Life 2. Added lightning Damage to attacks or Added physical damage to attacks 3. Rarity 4. DEX or INT or Fire Resistance (optional)	For the rings, look for high Maximum Life, added Lightning Damage to Attacks or added Physical Damage to Attacks, good Rarity, and depending on your needs: Dexterity, Intelligence, or Fire Resistance. – Remember to apply catalysts on your rings to further boost your stats.
Belt (Infernoclasp – Unique)		Mandatory Item! Needs to have 5% maximum fire resistance and a high #% Fire resistance roll. Look for one with 3 Charm Socket implicit

For the ARMOR sockets,

Use Soul Core of Puhuarte (1% Maximum Fire Resistance), “Soul Core of Jiquani” (2% Increased Maximum Life), “Soul Core of Tacati” (7% to Chaos Resistance). “Greater Robust Rune/Greater Adept Rune/ Greater Resolve Rune” (+10 to Strength/ Intelligence/ Dexterity), depending on what you need.

The only exception are the boots. These should always be socketed with Ox Talismans (20% increase presence area of effect)

For the WEAPON sockets,

Use “Greater Storm Rune” ( Adds (1–2) to (29–43) Lightning Damage )

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Jewels

For the jewels, you can use either Emeralds or Rubies. However, I highly recommend going with Emeralds and using Soul Core of Puhuarte (1% Maximum Fire Resistance) to cap your resistances at 90%. For the Emeralds, look for damage-related nodes like: #% increased Critical Damage Bonus for Attack Damage, #%increased Critical Damage Bonus with Spears, #%increased Critical Hit Chance for Attacks, #%increased Lightning Damage, #%increased Attack Damage, etc.

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Venom Draughts

+25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate

+10% Chaos Resistance

For the first Vial, choose “25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate”. This will help slightly with mana sustain in the endgame

For the second Vial, choose “10% Chaos Resistance” since this is a precious stat for the build.

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Flasks and Charms

• Life: Ultimate Life Flask
• Mana: Ultimate Mana Flask
• Charm#1: Thawing Charm (Mandatory)
• Charm#2: Amethyst Flask (Optional; can help if you are not Chaos Resistance capped)
• Charm#3: NGAMAHU’S CHOSEN – Unique charm – (will grant us maximum Rage during mapping)

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Common Mistakes

• Don’t forget to use the provided REGEX filter for your WAYSTONES: “!oj|bon|s r|a ch|h t|tes|m p” . Some map modifiers can make the build squishy; especially if your Atlas Skill Tree includes a lot of “#% increased effect of Explicit Modifiers on your Waystones” nodes.
• Do not forget to level up the main skill gems. Use Jeweller’s orbs in order to add more support gems to your main skill (most common issue). Players often forget to use quality (Gemcutter’s Prism) on the important skill/spirit gems.
• Unlock ascendancy points! Players sometimes take the wrong ascendancy class, so make sure you pick the right one!
• (For the Endgame Phase) Make sure you have Fire, Cold, and Lightning resistances capped to 90%! These should always be at 90% for the endgame. Additionally, aim for a good Chaos Resistance too (around 60% Chaos Resistance + an Amethyst Charm; or 75% without an Amethyst Charm)
• Do not forget to complete all the campaign side-quests! They give 24 Passive Tree nodes, Free Resistances, and Spirit up to 100. This is a very common issue! Be careful.

Waystone Modifiers You Should Avoid

You have the REGEX FILTER here: “!oj|bon|s r|a ch|h t|tes|m p” ( use it to sort your Waystones fast )

Listed below are Waystone Modifiers that you should avoid.

• Players have 60% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield.
• Monster Damage Penetrates 25% Elemental Resistances.
• -15% maximum Player Resistances.
• Monsters have 400% increased Critical Hit Chance and +45% to Monster Critical Damage Bonus.
• Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains

Changelog

• May 13th, 2025: Updated details on how the Smith’s Masterwork node works
• May 10th, 2025: Build Guide created for PoE2 Patch 0.2