Hello you fine people.

Because i always get invested in conversations about the Maw of Mischief / Death Wish build i thought, i make a post of my own so i can just link it in the future.

Im not saying its the best version of the build. I know there are plenty of ways to play it and i know the version of mine is not the most softcore way of building it. Feel free to comment and / or tell me if theres something you would change or something i just missed.

Lets start with the pob: https://pobb.in/mqTWkmle8dTh

Its a mix of items from past seasons and some created ones so its not maxed out on every stat. You dont need Mana on your belt or Spell Damage while dual wielding on your Abyss Jewel.

Also keep in mind, that you can optimize or just change the charms you think they fit you the best. There are some insane mods on them defence wise you can get but they are way to expensive for me so i choose some cheaper alternatives.

The rare Jewels are obviously hard to get and hard to afford if they are even sold. Just focus on %life and minion %life + some stats to push your DPS. Forbidden Flame / Flesh with Bone Barrier is a BIG damage boost but also pretty expensive. You can slot it some rare ones until you can afford them. Just remember the following:

DONT USE BONE BARRIER .

You can only use Bone Barrier or Molten Shell and Molton Shell is way better. You only care about the life it gives to your minions.

For the Raise Spectres we pick the Perfect Dark Marionette since its the only Spectre that resummons itself after 1 Second. Its just a nice to have for mapping and some additional damage for bossfights but if they are gone next season, the build works just fine without it.

Now lets talk about the build itself. I started to play this version of Maw of Mischief / Death Wish because i like dots and i wanted to push the most extreme maps. In my case, Vaal Temple with all the juice i could afford.

Thats why i stopped caring about the explosion part of the damage and just started focusing on the chaos ignite part of the spell. Just get the dot on the mobs and run around with Withering Step, recast between.

The only mod that rips the map is Avoid Elemental Ailments. You can get around no mana Reg with a Flask and if you brick your Expedition because of "Chaos Immun" you can just swap out the Blackflame for are Rare Ring or something.

This Build can get pretty tanky if you have enough money that is. My go to chest is the Brass Dome and if i combine it with Purity of Ice or Purity of Fire, it gets pretty beefy.

The new Chest "Pragmatism" makes it pretty easy and way cheaper to stack Minion Gem Level and grants some Armour. Since a well roled Brass Dome can get pretty expensive i just picked that one. We have to see what the marked says next season. Maybe the chest dissapears or gets pretty rare so the price goes up. Something with have to wait and see.

If you pick the Brass Dome over Pragmatism, theres a section for the gems in the pob. You just try to get the Golem Level up again. 5 link would be enough but you could also put Despair in it so it gains Levels form the Empower Support.

Until you can pay for the Replica Dragonfang with +3 to Stone Golem Level just grab a rare Amulett with +1 Level to Physical Gems. That also helps with the Dexterity.

Dexterity is the biggest problem with this build, so maybe you already start focusing on getting Dex on your Clusters, even if you dotn swap to the Replicas Dragonfang anytime soon. Otherwise you have to change them again and i kinda dislike that.

If for some reason you cant handle the mana cost, swap cruelty out for inspiration in your helmet. If you do that, you can also get rid of the Crit Chance on your charm and pick something else for it. The Crit Chance is only there to help with Elemental Overload.

Ascendancy:

Since we are dealing chaos damge with Blackflame, theres nearly no point in going Mastermind of Discord and Heart of Destruction. The expsoure only scales our Explosion damage and Convergence is kinda unreliable. Going with Shaper of Storms pushes our damage output constantly and only needs 2 Points so we can get Bastion of Elements and equip Aegis without loosing the Elemental Aegis.

1.- Shaper of Flames

2.- Shaper of Storms

3.- Liege of the Primordial

4.- Bastion of Elements

Cluster Jewels:

Thats a spicey one. We dont want to waste points so its important to watch out when rolling or buying them.

For the large ones, we ONLY care about Primordial Bond so we try to push it from the end of the Cluster to the side so we dont have to use that many points on it.

So grab a Jewel with 8 passives and look out for the following notes:

"Raze and Pillage" , "Renewel" , "Rotten Claws".

If your Cluster Jewel only has one of these 3 + Primordial Bond, its how we want it. You CANT pick a 3th note except the small ones or its bricked again.

For the Medium ones its 2x "Hulking Corpses", "Life from Death" and "Blessed Rebirth." Try to get some Dex and / or Chaos Resistance on the small notes. Helps alot.

For the Small one, the optimal would be a 2 point Mana Reservation one for Malevolance or Determination. Malevolance would be the best one since it gives Chaos Resistance also. If you struggle with Mana, go for a 3 point Jewel. We can play with that a bit.

Other Options:

Energised Armour for more defense.

Timeless Jewels obviously but you would give up tons of defense for it since the only spot to slot it in is near the Agnostic.

Playing with Perfect Dark Marionette : I decided against it since i dont like planing my builds around stuff thats gone the next season. Charms are just a nice to have but theres nothing to special on it. The only thing we have to think about next season is, again, the Mana Reservation.

To round it up, just let me tell you how much fun i have playing this build. Im not so good at playing the game so it helps if your build is pretty strong lol.

Im not a build / guide writer so please dont kill me if there some mistakes or if my explanations arent on point in some cases.

I just hope, i can help some people out that want to try Maw of Mischief or just struggle with the defensive side of the build since most people building it for the highest damage output and in a softcore way.

Wish you all the best and good luck in the game!