Overview
This is a first-impressions look at the Kelari and Ruzhan Djinn variant of Disciple of Varashta, written from a day-one campaign run rather than a finished endgame character. The creator came to it from a Lich minion build and treats it as a deliberate change of pace, leaning on command skills to direct Djinns instead of maintaining a standing minion army.
The build’s identity is the Archon clone loop. Ruzhan’s ground slam grants an Archon buff worth a very large chunk of cooldown recovery, and the Djinn command skills can leave behind clones that detonate when the skill is reused while a previous clone is still alive. Banking charges and then dumping them is where the burst comes from — and the creator is candid that the interaction is not fully understood yet, with clones appearing inconsistently.
As a league-start proposition it holds up. The character was halfway through Act 4 with ordinary rares, no meaningful uniques, and a crossbow-and-grenades opener carrying the first act before the ascendancy unlocked in Act 2. From that point on the assessment is that it becomes noticeably strong, particularly against bosses, where the Djinn commands stun reliably.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Comes online early — the Act 2 ascendancy unlock is the inflection point, not a level 70 gear check
- Runs on nothing; the creator reached mid-campaign with zero relevant uniques equipped
- Strong boss stun pressure from the Djinn command skills
- Genuinely controller-friendly: command skills auto-target the nearest enemy rather than requiring cursor placement
- The temporary damage Djinns cannot die, removing the usual minion-build fragility
Cons
- Weaker overall than the creator’s Storm Blast comparison point
- The Archon clone mechanic is inconsistent and poorly documented — it takes experimentation to make it fire reliably
- Requires a crossbow-and-grenades filler for all of Act 1 before the ascendancy exists
- Day-one impressions only; no endgame or mapping data behind the assessment
Key Skills
- Kelari and Ruzhan Djinn commands — the core damage, directed rather than summoned, auto-targeting the nearest enemy
- Ruzhan’s ground slam — generates the Archon buff granting a large cooldown recovery boost
- Djinn clone detonation — banking charges and re-using the skill while a clone lives converts stored uses into burst damage
- Puppet Master — the supporting minion node package the creator picked up alongside the command skills
- Grenades and Galvanic Shards — the Act 1 crossbow filler used before the ascendancy unlock
Gear & Anointments
Gearing was deliberately casual here. The character ran ordinary campaign rares with no meaningful uniques through Act 4 — the one unique in the build was kept purely for its intelligence to level spectres, since its minion-life and life-flask-immunity mods do nothing for temporary Djinns.
Spirit is spent on additional persistent minions alongside the command Djinns. Leveling ran a crossbow with grenades, armour-piercing rounds and Galvanic Shards through Act 1, with elemental damage and fire penetration on the tree, before switching to Djinn commands once the ascendancy landed in Act 2. Specific uniques and endgame gear priorities to be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
The creator also covers the Forbidden Rites event running alongside this patch and is honest about it: the in-campaign rituals spawn gauntlets of previously-fought bosses and are difficult, but the unique rewards were poor across a full campaign’s worth of attempts. Trial of Chaos was assessed as unprofitable for raw drops, with the three keys and potential +1 soul cores as the only reliably valuable outcomes. Neither mechanic is treated as a reason to pick this build.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Kingdom Twelve. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage and voice commentary: This Almost Beat My Best League Starter | Kelari & Ruzhan Varashta Day 1 Update/Thoughts PoE2 0.5.5.