Overview
Explosive Spear has always had one fatal flaw: it only feels good while you are flush with Frenzy charges, and Frenzy charges are hard to generate and harder to keep. This Gemling Legionnaire showcase exists specifically to solve that problem. The Gemling’s quality bonus on every skill gem grants a 26% chance to not consume charges on use, and that single line transforms Explosive Spear from a clunky campaign skill into something you can spam to your heart’s content.
On top of the charge economy, the build layers a double-ailment engine: it scales bleed and ignite simultaneously. Using Scythe’s Spear to aggravate bleeding (which also aggravates ignite for double DoT), plus 0.5’s change where added fire damage feeds bleed magnitude and bleeds deal fire damage, the spear hits push both ailments at once. It is a dense, tech-heavy build — this is a level-89 showcase, not a finished guide, with crit scaling still being dialed in.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Gemling quality + Combat Frenzy + Fabled Stag finally make Explosive Spear’s Frenzy charges reliable
- Double-dips bleed and ignite from the same hits for strong sustained damage
- Armour scales hard via Virtuous Barrier moats (5% increased armour per moat, ~80% total)
- Block + parry tech (Reputation/disengage) gives an on-demand Frenzy refill against bosses
Cons
- Explicitly NOT a league starter — ~30-40 Divine just to enter at T15 comfort
- Requires a twice-corrupted Valako spear and an Isolation-gated thaumaturgic generator, both pricey
- Very high complexity: juggling charges, two ailments, rage and block thresholds at once
- Still a work in progress — weapon-swap and crit balance not yet finalized
Key Skills
- Explosive Spear — primary skill, spammed once Frenzy charges are solved
- Rake / Blood Hunt — alternative bleed application and big single-target bleeds
- Reputation — automatic omni-directional block that applies parry for the Frenzy combo
- Combat Frenzy + Spearfield + Pin — backup Frenzy generation when automatic uptime dips
Gear & Anointments
The weapon archetype is a spear: a twice-corrupted Valako spear (~377 phys, ~20 Divine) carrying increased physical damage plus the all-important aggravate modifiers, paired with Scythe’s Spear tech for bleed/ignite conversion. Churnabog’s converts block chance into fire damage, runeforged with Oxydle’s for ~33% block. Gloves use Rune Forge for the runic ward needed by Reputation. Ascendancy takes Muric Implants (+2 dexterity skill levels) and Adaptive Capability to pay skill costs with strength. Specific rolls and the full passive tree should be confirmed against the source video and the linked planner.
Endgame Notes
Comfortable at T15 with six mods at level 89; the creator is scaling toward 95 with more crit and a dedicated weapon set. Armour break (Molten One’s Gift) is eyed as a future endgame layer once the charge economy can spare it.
Credits & Source
Build credited to deucehammer, with the blistering bond / Scythe’s Spear interaction credited to Dreamcore in the video. A full build guide, POB and POE2-ninja link are promised in the video description. See the source video for the full showcase footage and commentary: Explosive Saitha’s Spear Gemling Build Showcase - POE2 0.5.