Overview
This build is built around Raven’s Flight, a new 0.5 unique staff that grants a chaos damage-over-time aura pulsing around the character — effectively a death aura scaled through minion damage rather than spell or hit modifiers. Because the aura is both a minion skill and damage over time, it sidesteps on-hit and “gain as extra” scaling, so the whole build is shaped around feeding it minion damage and surrounding it with explosions. The result is a relaxed, near-passive playstyle where you walk through packs and watch everything detonate.
The explosion engine comes from the Witchhunter ascendancy, whose chain-reaction explosions trigger with no conditions and double their chance against demons and the undead — exactly the monster types found in Breach and the Abyss. Since Witchhunter explosions normally require you to land the killing blow yourself and ignore minion kills, the build leans on unique gloves to bridge that gap, letting the death aura’s kills feed the chain reactions. A separate command skill provides hit-based single-target damage for bosses and dangerous rares.
This is a “for the soul” build rather than a min-maxed speed farmer — the creator is upfront that it can’t compete with the top-tier one-shot builds, but it offers genuinely soothing, low-effort gameplay with a comfortable defensive base.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Near-passive clear — only three skills on the bar, mostly just moving while explosions cascade
- Excellent in Breach, Abyss and Expedition, where the doubled explosion chance against demons and undead shines
- Solid defensive base via Sorcery Ward, with damage taken from mana before life converting an otherwise unused mana pool into effective HP
- Vestige of Darkness adds passive damage plus a blind layer for extra survivability
Cons
- Weak, expensive damage scaling — minion damage-over-time is hard and costly to push, so the currency-to-damage ratio is poor
- Not suited to 200% delirium or the most demanding juiced content
- Single-target is slow; the command skill needs roughly 10 stacks that build up slowly on bosses
- Gear-gated, with a costly +4-to-minion-skills amulet as the biggest investment
Key Skills
- Raven’s Flight (death aura) — the core chaos damage-over-time aura, scaled through minion damage
- Command skill — hit-based single-target for bosses and tanky rares
- Witchhunter explosions — conditionless chain-reaction AoE that doubles in chance versus demons and undead
- Vestige of Darkness — periodically summons a damaging monster and blinds nearby enemies
Gear & Anointments
The build is centered on a stack of uniques: the Raven’s Flight staff, the Vestige of Darkness helmet, the must-have Sorcery Ward unique armour, and the unique gloves that let your minion and aura kills trigger Witchhunter explosions. The standout rare is the amulet — you want spirit and +4 to all minion skills, with a +2 version as the budget fallback. Rings and boots are simple rare life/evasion/resistance pieces (you can drop life on rings to save divines, since HP isn’t the main defence), and a breach-modifier belt adds minion damage and area. A unique jewel saves a large block of pathing points on the tree. Specific uniques and jewels should be confirmed against the source video’s build link.
Endgame Notes
The build farms Breach and Expedition comfortably — Expedition especially after its recent buff — and handles general mapping well, but it is explicitly not a 200%-delirium or pinnacle-rush build. Bosses die slowly but safely. The creator notes that a weapon-swap to a stronger boss skill is available for players who want more single-target, leaving clear room to push the build further.
Credits & Source
Build credited to ExiledCat PoE. See the source video for the full gameplay footage and itemisation: Explosive Autobomber Death’s Oath build.