I love PoE and I'm here to make you fall in love too. PoE is a hard game, but the maxroll team and I can make it easy enough to be your new addiction. Build guides, helpful advice, and a good ass time all on my twitch and youtube channel. Learn how to progress your gear, important Milestones, Budget Items, Earlygame, Endgame & Crafting for the Corrupting Fever Champion Build.
Character Progression
Early Game
Mid Game
End Game
Early Game Goal
Throughout our early game progression we focus on having the necessary defenses to complete white and yellow maps.
The rest of our attention is on getting as much damage and clear speed as possible to allow us to farm currency. This accelerates our upgrades and grants us access to higher tier content. Most of the purchases and crafts throughout the early game are affordable and accessible, even for beginners.
Milestone 1 - Capped Resistance + Life
When you hit maps, focus on upgrading all of your gear to have Resistance AND Life on almost every slot. You can do this by picking up every Rare item that has Armour (to make coloring easier), or find Armour bases and use the following Essences on them:
- Screaming Essence of Greed
- Screaming Essence of Hatred
- Screaming Essence of Anger
- Screaming Essence of Wrath
- Finish the item by crafting Life or Hybrid Elemental Resistances. The Syndicate Hybrid Chaos + Elemental Resistance craft is a very easy way to get your Chaos Resistance to at least 0%.
You also need Dexterity and Intelligence to equip your gear and Skill Gems. When first starting and leveling, spec into the +30 nodes on the passive Skill Tree. Later on use the following Essences to obtain these mods on gear saving Passive Points:
- Screaming Essence of Spite
- Screaming Essence of Sorrow
Do this throughout your early mapping experience. Track which slot is your weakest and upgrade it through Essences, purchasing from the trade site, or by picking a better piece off the ground. For any gear that doesn't have Life + Resistances, throw it in a premium tab at 2 Chaos Orbs each, later vendoring all those items for Orb of Alteration if they don't sell.
Milestone 2 - Flasks
Flasks are a significant part of our defence. You need every single one of the following:
- Silver Flask
- Quicksilver Flask
- Granite Flask
- Jade Flask
- Divine Life Flask
Craft your Flasks by first using an Orb of Transmutation on White Flasks and then alternating between using Orb of Alteration and Orb of Augmentation until you hit the following mods on your Silver Flask, Granite Flask and Jade Flask (any of the below mods can be on any of the flasks you're rolling):
- Increased Evasion during Flask effect.
- Increased Armor during Flask effect.
- Reduced Effect of Curses on you during Flask effect.
- Increased Movement Speed during Flask effect.
When rolling your Divine Life Flask you want Grants Immunity to Bleeding if used while Bleeding. The easiest way to obtain this is through a Beast Craft that adds a "Sealing" modifier to your Life Flask after you Alteration spam one of the following modifiers onto your Divine Life Flask:
- 46% reduced Amount Recovered / 135% increased Recovery rate / 50% of Recovery applied Instantly
- 66% reduced Amount Recovered / Instant Recovery
- 21% reduced Amount Recovered / Instant Recovery when on Low Life
After picking up or purchasing 20 Instilling Orbs and Glassblower's Baubles, check the Crafting Bench and craft Used when Charges Reach Full so that you no longer need to press your Flasks, other than your Life Flask, while mapping.
Milestone 3 - Wand
Since you have Spiritual Aid on the Passive Skill Tree your abilities scale with % increased Minion damage. Take advantage of this by simply using a Screaming Essence of Fear on a Calling Wand base. Finish this by crafting +#% to Physical Damage over Time Multiplier which is unveiled from Syndicate Missions.
Alternatively you can purchase a The Poet's Pen and put your Reap and Exsanguinate in it with Brutality Support or Controlled Destruction Support. This is a great way to remove one button and smooth out the builds playstyle. You won't have to purchase a 6-link Body Armour then, since the Life cost of Corrupting Fever would be too high in a 6-Link. If you use this setup, you won't be able to use the Storm Brand setup so there is an opportunity cost, but I personally think it's worth it to remove one button from the build.
Milestone 4 - Unique Items
You have 3 Uniques to purchase at this tier. The first should be cheap, but the next 2 can be expensive; if you can’t afford them all at once, purchase in this order:
- A Mark of Submission with Vulnerability put inside.
- A Haemophilia for your "Bleed explosions".
- A Saffell's Frame for the Spell Block and Maximum Resistances
Milestone 4 - 5-Linked Body Armour
Purchase a 5-Linked Armour or Hybrid Armour Body Armour. Use a few Screaming Essence of Greed until you hit a 30%+ Resistance. Finish your Body Armour with a Resistance or Stat craft (based on your needs).
Milestone 5 - Large Cluster Jewel
Cluster Jewels are the first big purchase of the build. If you can't afford 8 Passive Physical Clusters, 9-10 Passive Cluster Jewels can be used in the meantime. When purchasing your Large Cluster Jewels, keep an eye out for Jewels with 1 - 3 of the following mods if possible:
- Battle Hardened
- Master the Fundamentals
- Iron Breaker
- Force Multiplier
- Furious Assault
If you have currency and couldn't get any good modifiers, begin crafting your Large Cluster Jewels using Jagged Fossils in Primitive Chaotic Resonators. Getting 3 of the above modifiers is the goal, but settling for 1-2 early on is more than worth it to purchase better upgrades first.
Milestone 6 - Damage Jewels
After your clusters are rolled, search for damage jewels and allocate them all in your Passive Tree. You need 5 total Jewels, so purchase them with at least 2 or more of the following mods:
- % to Physical damage over Time Multiplier.
- % to Damage over Time Multiplier.
- % Increased Global Physical Damage.
- % Increased Damage.
- % Increased Damage over Time.
Milestone 7 - DoT Multi Amulet
Look for amulets on Lapis Amulet, Jade Amulet or Turquoise Amulet bases. The desired stats on your amulet are the following:
- 20%+ damage over time multiplier
- High Max Life
- High Intelligence And/Or Dexterity
Keep an eye out for Amulets that are close to usable and have an open modifier on them, you can craft one of the missing stats above into the open slot. Anoint Acrimony on the amulet using the following Oils at Cassia:
Clear Oil
Black Oil
Black Oil
Mid Game Goal
In the mid game focus on pushing your character’s damage to farm red map content with favorable league mechanics and great survivability.
After these Milestones your character is ready to farm any Red Map content you desire.
Milestone 1 - 6-Link Chest
Next purchase an Item Level 72 or higher 6-Linked Armour based Body Armour. Screaming Essence of Greed until you hit 2 of the following. Finish it by crafting any Resistance or stat you need in your Suffix, or crafting the Syndicate modifier increased Maximum Life or x% of Physical damage from Hits taken as Fire/Lightning damage.
- Any Elemental Resistance 30% or higher
- 20% or more Chaos Resistance
- 5% Physical Damage Reduction
- 35+ Dexterity/Intelligence
Milestone 2 - Poet's Pen
Upgrade your damage and quality of life by purchasing a The Poet's Pen[/poe-item. This triggers socketed skill gems when you use any wand attack. It's a great addition to remove button presses, and smooth out the playstyle of the build.
Milestone 3 - Physical Leech
Purchase a [poe-item id=UniqueBelt9 variant=1]Doryani's Invitation MAKING SURE that it is the Physical version with increased Physical Damage and Physical Damage Leeched as Life. This belt has Physical Damage Leeched as Life which applies to Attacks AND Spells (most mods specify Physical ATTACK Damage Leeched as Life) and has good Elemental Resistances to help round you out. The Leech from this item helps sustain you while mapping and helps during difficult boss encounters.
Milestone 4 - Boots, Helmet, Amulet and Ring Upgrades
This Milestone is to make upgrades to your gear with the goal of 4 good modifiers, one being 70+ to Maximum Life, on each piece of gear. The easiest way to accomplish this is through purchasing Fractured bases. This is an item that has a good modifier "Locked in." This allows you to use an item like an Essence on the Fractured base which then guarantees 2 good modifiers, since the Fractured modifier is locked in and cannot be changed, and the Essence always rolls its guaranteed modifier.
For your Amulet you want to do one of two things:
- Purchase a Fractured Damage over Time Multiplier base.
- Purchase an Amulet with Damage over Time Multiplier and a few good mods.
For your Boots make sure to end it with the Suffix Craft x% reduced Effect of Chill and Shock on you.
This example shows how to approach all of your gear slots.
- I need more Resistances and Life on my gloves to free up space on other gear slots
- I purchase a Fractured Fire Resistance Glove
- I use Screaming Essence of Wrath until I hit another good Elemental Resistance, Chaos Resistance, a Stat, or Maximum Life.
- I hit a good Maximum Life roll, so I finish with a hybrid Elemental and Chaos Resistance Craft to obtain some Chaos Resistance.
Milestone 5 - Checkpoint
This is a checkpoint. You must pull over and look at all of your gear. Making sure you have all of the following:
- Rolled Flasks that each have a useful modifier (eg: increased Armour/Evasion rating, reduced Effect of Curses on you). Make sure to use the Crafting Bench to add Use When Full to ALL Utility Flasks.
- 70+ to Maximum Life on each Rare gear slot.
- Stats on your gear instead of the Passive Tree
- At least 0% Chaos Resistance
Milestone 6 - Better Jewels and Gems
Jewels are the single greatest place to obtain damage for this build. So purchase them with at least 3 or more of the following mods to increase your damage:
- % to Physical damage over Time Multiplier.
- % to Damage over Time Multiplier.
- % Increased Global Physical Damage.
- % Increased Damage.
- % Increased Damage over Time..
Purchase a level 21 Corrupting Fever and Reap for a massive damage increase. Take this time to look over your gems and "flip" (vendor Level 20 Gems with 1 Gemcutter's Prism for a Level 1 Gem with 20% Quality) any Level 20 Gems you have.
You can also pick up and Anomalous Kinetic Blast granting your Kinetic Blast pierce for free. You would then replace Pierce Support with Maim Support.
Milestone 7 - Cluster Crafting
If you don't have one yet, obtain an 8 Passive Physical Large Cluster Base with 3 increased Physical Damage modifiers on it. The easiest way to obtain these modifiers is to purchase an Item Level 50+ base and use ~20 Jagged Fossil to hit 3 Notables that give damage.
Milestone 8 - Awakened Gems
The last and easiest upgrade to obtain damage is the purchase of Awakened Swift Affliction Support and Awakened Brutality Support. These are expensive on league start, so feel free to obtain them later at a lower cost.
End Game Goal
End game focuses entirely on defense and quality of life, with options to build even more damage if desired. The focus of this section is high end crafting with the goal of achieving Ailment Immunity, and a considerable amount of armor and evasion.
These upgrades position your character as one fully ready to power farm red tier maps without issue. You can exploit all of the most profitable mapping league mechanics at speeds unmatched by other league starters. The upgrades from this point forward are more expensive and may require crafting or game knowledge in order to complete.
Milestone 1 - Amulet
Your Amulet is another easy source of damage.
Milestone 2 - Skin of the Lords
Purchase one of these Skin of the Lords. IMPORTANT You can only put Corrupted Gems inside of this Body Armour. This chest gives +2 to Level of Socketed Gems which applies to your Corrupting Fever AND Empower Support. You also obtain 100% increased Armour/Evasion/Energy Shield.
Milestone 3 - Upgrading Jewels
Jewels are a HUGE amount of your damage. This is the last spot to obtain relatively cheap damage. After this there are still damage upgrades, but they're much more shallow. Purchase 3 mod damage jewels or change the count to 2 and turn on the increased maximum Life to obtain more Life.
You also need to Purchase another 8 Passive 3 good Notable Physical damage Cluster Jewel with this link.
Milestone 4 - Thread of Hope + Watcher's Eye
This is the final purchase you can make before having to re-craft all of your gear to obtain enough Chaos Resistance. Purchase a Thread of Hope that affects Passives in a Very Large Ring, put it in the Templar Jewel Socket (by the Endurance and Power charge) and take the following notables:
- Spiritual Aid
- Safeguard and the other small Spell Block passive
- Discipline and Training
Watcher's Eye can be a large source of damage or survival depending on what you want to take. There's only a few mods that you want so choose from these three based on what you want and can afford.
Milestone 5 - Divine Flesh Gear Swap
Divine Flesh is a Keystone that is obtained by socketing a Glorious Vanity and putting passives into a Keystone within your Glorious Vanity circle of influence.
This Keystone provides a lot of mitigation of Elemental Damage by taking half of Elemental Damage as Chaos. You get +5% extra maximum Resistances but you also mitigate Elemental Penetration Hits from abilities like Shapers Balls or Atziri's Flameblast.
While this is great for mitigation, it requires a complete re-work of your gear to obtain 84% Chaos Resistance. This requires 33%+ to Chaos Resistance fractured on your Helmet, Boots and a Ring. You will also need the Unveiled ~20% Chaos Resistance Hybrid mod on your Amulet.
WARNING! DO NOT PUT THIS JEWEL IN AND USE IT UNTIL YOU HAVE 84% CHAOS RESISTANCE FROM THE GEAR BELOW OR YOU WILL DIE ALL THE TIME!!!!!
