The Maw of Mischief Elementalist builds an excellent choice for league starts and boss fights, with a strong emphasis on single-target damage over time and massive Ignites that can hit the DoT cap of 35 Million DPS. Using Channel Death Wish, you can sacrifice your Minions to create a powerful explosion that scales your Ignite damage with their life.
In this guide, we will help you cover and learn about the Maw of Mischief Elementalist guide. And how you can improve your gameplay by using specific skills to earn maximum currency.
How to Begin with Maw of Mischief Build
To begin this build, you will first level up using Armageddon Brand and Cremation until you reach the end-game maps. Once you are in these maps, you can switch to Wave of Conviction until you have acquired the Maw of Mischief helmet. After acquiring the Maw of Mischief, you can focus on building your Ignite damage and DOT capabilities to take on even the most challenging bosses.
In Path of Exile's Harvest expansion, players can obtain the unique Maw of Mischief helmet by defeating the mighty creature, The Harvest boss, found in the Sacred Grove. The Maw of Mischief is a rare item exclusive to this boss encounter.
The Maw of Mischief grants several powerful benefits to the wearer, including increased spell damage, maximum life and mana, and the ability to cast spells faster. Its unique mechanic also causes nearby enemies to take increased damage from all sources, making it a popular choice among players specializing in dealing elemental damage.
Elemental Damage Potential of the Maw of Mischief
The Maw of Mischief is a unique two-handed axe in Path of Exile with significant elemental damage potential. Let's look at its stats and how it can be optimized for maximum damage output.
The Maw of Mischief has a base physical damage range of 85-142 and 1.3 attacks per second speed. In addition to its physical damage, it has the following elemental damage modifiers:
● (20-30) % increased Fire Damage
● (20-30) % increased Cold Damage
● (20-30) % increased Lightning Damage
These modifiers apply to the weapon's base damage and any additional damage from other sources, such as passive skills, support gems, or equipment. This means the Maw of Mischief can be a powerful weapon for builds focusing on elemental damage.
Players can consider the following to increase the weapon's elemental damage potential.
● Scaling Damage with Passive Skills – The passive skill tree has several clusters that increase elemental damage. For example, the "Elemental Damage with Weapons" and "Cold/Lightning/Fire Damage" clusters all significantly boost elemental damage.
● Gems That Add Elemental Damage - Support gems like Elemental Damage with Attacks, Elemental Focus, and Added Cold/Lightning/Fire Damage could all add significant amounts of elemental damage to attacks made with the Maw of Mischief.
● Equipment That Provides Elemental Damage - Rings, amulets, and other equipment can all provide elemental damage bonuses that further boost the Maw of Mischief's damage output.
Major Skill Breakdown and Other Skills Set
Here is the deep skill breakdown of the Maw build.
1. Death Wish
This skill allows you to sacrifice your minions, causing them to explode violently, damaging enemies in the surrounding area. The explosion may also set enemies on fire, which can spread to other enemies with certain support items. This ability is unlocked by wearing the Maw of Mischief helmet, affecting up to 13 minions at once. However, if you stop channeling this ability or get interrupted, your minions will explode, dealing fire damage equal to 19% of their maximum life.
2. Stone Golem
The Summon Stone Golem is an ideal minion for dealing damage due to its high life. However, the downside is that it must be sacrificed to create an enormous explosion. The golem's life is solely valuable in this regard. The Summon Stone Golem is the most significant minion when it comes to causing damage, and it's crucial to ensure that it fights the boss before using Death Wish to cause its unfortunate and untimely demise.
3. Utility and Auras
Always keep your Aura Gems active and reactivate them after reviving. To increase your Damage over Time, activate a temporary and powerful version of Malevolence.
When facing hordes of enemies, charge straight into them with Shield Charge, your primary movement ability that allows you to traverse through maps quickly. If you need to escape quickly, use Flame Dash to teleport away.
4. Flammability
You can inflict Flammability and Elemental Weakness curses on your enemies, reducing their Fire Resistance to your attacks. Use an Arcanist Brand to apply these curses, which will latch onto your target and trigger all linked abilities for 3 seconds.
5. Extra Utility
When you cast Flame Surge, it ignites the ground beneath your enemies, dealing damage equal to 25% of your most significant Ignite damage on the first enemy hit.
With Convocation, you can instantly bring your Minions back to your side, allowing quick access to your explosives. Additionally, you can defend yourself with Molten Shell, a barrier that shields you from damage.
Tips for Enhancing the Power of Build
● Start by taking the Elemental Overload passive skill near the Witch starting point. This will allow you to deal increased elemental damage with every hit.
● Focus on taking passive skills that increase your spell damage, elemental damage, and elemental penetration, as well as any life and mana nodes that you need to survive.
● Take the Beacon of Ruin passive skill in the center of the tree, which will cause your elemental status ailments to spread to nearby enemies.
● Take the Liege of the Primordial passive skill near the Elementalist starting point, which will give you two powerful golems that can provide additional damage and utility.
● Take the Elemental Equilibrium passive skill near the Witch starting point, which will cause enemies to become more vulnerable to your spells by reducing their elemental resistance.
Gem Linking and Other Minor Details of Mischief Elementalist
Here are a few things that will make your build more robust and provide you a better advantage in PoE
Gem Linking
● Primary Damage Spell – Use a high-damage elemental spell such as Arc, Storm Brand, or Ball Lightning in a 6-link setup, with support gems such as Elemental Focus, Controlled Destruction, Added Lightning Damage, and Increased Critical Strikes.
● Movement Skill – Use a skill such as Flame Dash or Lightning Warp to move around the map quickly.
● Utility Spells – Use skills such as Immortal Call, Cast when Damage Taken or Steelskin to provide additional survivability.
● Golem Summoning - Link Summon Flame Golem and Summon Stone Golem to Cast when Damage Taken for additional damage and utility.
Equipment
● Maw of Mischief – This unique helmet is the cornerstone of the build, providing increased spell damage, life, and mana and a unique mechanic that causes nearby enemies to take increased damage from all sources.
● Rare Gear – Look for gear with high life, elemental damage, and elemental resistance. You should also prioritize increased spell damage or critical strike chance.
● Unique Items – Consider using items such as Inpulsa's Broken Heart for increased elemental damage and Herald of Thunder for additional lightning damage.
Playstyle and Combat Tips
● Use your primary damage spell to deal elemental damage to enemies, focusing on spreading elemental status ailments with Beacon of Ruin.
● Move quickly around the map using your movement skill to avoid enemy attacks and position yourself for maximum damage.
● Use your golems and utility spells to provide additional damage and survivability.
● Please take advantage of the Maw of Mischief's unique mechanic by positioning yourself in groups of enemies to deal increased damage to all of them at once.
Conclusion
In this guide, we discussed the Maw of Mischief Elementilist build and how you can improve your playing style by using this build. We also have a breakdown of the unique skill set and gem linking. So go through the guide to learn more about it, and visit our news page for other great builds and guides.