The fires of Wraeclast burn hotter than ever in Path of Exile 2, and few builds embody that destructive brilliance like the Infernalist Incinerate build. Combining the relentless channeling of Incinerate with a carefully engineered web of ignite scaling, fuel management, and chaos conversion, this setup showcases the new mechanical depth that Grinding Gear Games has introduced into the sequel.

This build isn’t just about burning your enemies—it’s about mastering the rhythm of sustained channeling, fuel economy, and layering a complex damage-over-time engine that melts bosses and clears maps with eerie efficiency. Let’s take a deep dive into every aspect of this infernal masterpiece—from its gems and passive tree to its gear, curses, and Path of Exile 2 Currency.

Core Concept: Fueling the Flame

At its heart, this build revolves around the new Incinerate system. Previously, Incinerate simply consumed mana like most other skills. But in Path of Exile 2, that paradigm has shifted. The skill now uses a Fuel mechanic—a secondary resource gained by spending mana with other abilities.

To ignite the flame, you must first build up fuel. Once the fuel bar is full, you can unleash Incinerate and maintain its power for an extended period. The longer you channel, the more devastating your ignites become. The build’s design ensures that fuel generation, ignite magnitude, and uptime remain seamless, allowing for 100% continuous damage output once combat begins.

The process looks like this:

Spend mana using a linked skill such as Despair or Fireball.

Gain fuel, indicated by the bar around the Incinerate icon.

Channel Incinerate to consume that fuel, dealing colossal damage over time.

The elegance lies in automation—through careful support gem choices and clever mana cycling, you rarely need to manually refill fuel during combat.

Skill Gems and Supports: Building the Inferno

The damage core is centered around Incinerate, supported by a set of synergistic gems that enhance ignite potency, duration, and consistency.

Main Links:

Incinerate – the primary channeling skill.

Ignite 3 – causes ignites to deal damage 15% faster.

Searing Flame 2 – doubles the magnitude of ignite damage.

Burgeon 2 – grants up to 40% more damage for every second spent channeling.

Considered Casting – provides 35% more overall damage.

Stoic Season 2 – ramps damage by 2% per second up to 20%, maintaining full uptime as long as you avoid movement skills or dodging.

Together, these gems transform Incinerate into a sustained DoT engine, scaling exponentially the longer it burns. Thanks to Burgeon and Stoic Season, the build maintains both scaling multiplicative damage and full uptime—something few channeling builds can claim.

Fuel Mechanics and Automation

Fuel generation is critical, and this build handles it elegantly using Cost on Elemental Ailment supports and Fireball triggers. Each Fireball cast costs significant mana—around 346 per cast—and because they’re triggered automatically, they continually refill fuel as you fight.

Here’s the setup:

Fireball x2 – primary fuel generators.

Boundless Energy 2 – boosts energy regeneration by 45%.

Energy Retention – provides a 35% chance to refund half the energy cost.

Fluke – adds variability but crucially restores up to 20% of mana spent by triggered skills.

Even when your mana runs dry, Fluke ensures that you regain just enough to keep the cycle going. You’re essentially running a closed-loop system—mana spent generates fuel, and fuel sustains the skill.

Curses and Mapping vs. Bossing Setups

The Infernalist build runs two distinct curse setups depending on content type—mapping for general clearing and bossing for pinnacle encounters.

Mapping Setup:

Blasphemy + Temporal Chains – creates a large aura that slows enemies across a wide radius.

Heightened Curse – amplifies curse potency.

Magnified Area 2 – expands the curse range further.

Clarity – ensures stable mana regeneration to maintain the fuel cycle.

This combination provides immense safety in maps, keeping mobs sluggish and ensuring you never run out of mana or fuel mid-fight.

Bossing Setup:

For pinnacle bosses, the focus shifts toward shock application for massive damage amplification. Instead of Blasphemy, a companion (minion) is deployed as a shockbot:

Frozen Mandible – always applies shock.

Storm Fire – makes shocks permanent on ignited enemies.

Overcharge – increases shock magnitude by 50%.

Meat Shield – boosts survivability.

Last Gasp – prolongs companion uptime after death.

Because the companion’s shock persists indefinitely thanks to Storm Fire, the Infernalist enjoys constant shock scaling—a 1.5x damage multiplier layered on top of the already devastating ignites.

Ascendancy: Infernalist Power

While alternative classes like Pathfinder can run this build effectively, the Infernalist Ascendancy is thematically and mechanically perfect. It ties directly into fire-based damage conversion, ignite scaling, and synergistic chaos conversion.

Key nodes include:

All Damage Contributes to Ignite Magnitude – boosts both personal and ally damage sources.

Altered Flesh and Beta’s Will/Hand – increase maximum spirits and energy shield scaling.

Black Flame Covenant – the build’s defining feature, converting all fire damage to chaos.

This last node changes everything. Once you take Black Flame Covenant, every fire spell becomes a chaos spell—your Incinerate flames turn from orange to ominous purple, and all ignite damage becomes chaos-based. The implication? Traditional fire scaling no longer works; the build now relies entirely on chaos damage, ignite magnitude, and ailment scaling for its destructive power.

Passive Tree: Scaling the Apocalypse

The passive tree prioritizes ignite magnitude, chaos damage, and movement speed efficiency while casting.

Highlights include:

Ignite Magnitude Clusters – providing up to +60% ignite magnitude and faster ignite damage.

Chaos Damage Wheels – 53% increased chaos damage with minor self-cost penalties.

Energy Shield and Spirit Nodes – maintaining hybrid defense and resource pools.

Reduced Movement Penalty Nodes – allowing fluid movement while channeling.

The build intentionally skips hit-based nodes or ignite duration bonuses—since Incinerate is constantly active, extending ignite duration has no benefit. Instead, everything revolves around faster and stronger ignites.

Gear Breakdown: Budget Power

One of the strongest aspects of this build is accessibility. Despite its complexity, the entire setup is relatively cheap because none of its components are meta or high-demand.

Weapon & Off-Hand

Wand with:

+2–3 to all Spell Skill Gems

Increased Cast Speed

Increased Spell or Chaos Damage

Optional: Gain Mana on Kill for sustain

Focus/Shield with:

+3 to Spell Skills

Increased Chaos Damage

Energy Shield Recharge Rate

Fast Start of Recharge

Together, they boost both raw power and survivability. The wand’s cast speed is particularly critical—it directly affects the tick rate and stacking speed of Incinerate, determining how quickly you hit maximum burn potential.

Helmet, Armor, and Gloves

Helmet / Armor: Prioritize high energy shield, resistances, and spirit.

Gloves: Aim for “Increased Effect of Socketed Items” with two Runes of Cruelty, giving a total of +60% magnitude to damaging ailments—a major multiplier for ignite damage.

Boots & Belt

Movement while channeling is a defining strength of this build.

Boots: “Increased Effect of Socketed Items” with Furlu’s Rune of Grace, reducing movement speed penalties by 24%.

Mapping Belt (Darkness Enthroned variant): Socketed with more Grace Runes to further reduce penalty and maintain speed.

Bossing Belt: Swap to one treating items as “Gloves” instead, slotting in extra Ignite Magnitude runes for raw damage.

The result: you move swiftly even while channeling—a luxury most stationary builds can’t afford.

Jewelry

Necklace: +3 to Spell Skills, Cast Speed, Resistances, and Global Defenses. Instill Lasting Trauma for +30% ailment magnitude.

Rings:

One Black Flame Amethyst Ring for up to +61% Ignite Magnitude (corrupted).

One Chaos/Spell Damage Ring for utility and resistances.

This combination anchors your ignite scaling, ensuring near-max magnitude even without perfect jewels.

Jewels

Your jewel sockets should all prioritize:

Increased Ignite Magnitude

Increased Ailment Damage Speed (Ignites deal damage faster)

Cast Speed

Optional affixes like “Chance to Shock” are no longer required once your companion setup handles shock uptime.

Defensive Layers and Utility

Despite its offense, the build isn’t fragile. Energy shield investment, clarity sustain, and spirit scaling keep you surprisingly durable. Adding Unwavering Stance (immune to light stuns) is a recommended late-game option, especially for continuous channeling. While it costs several travel nodes, the benefit—never having your Incinerate interrupted—is immensely cheap Path of Exile 2 Currency.

Charms further bolster survivability:

Immunity to Freeze and Stun

Spirit of the Bear for +20% Life and +20% Damage Reduction

Optional charms for additional movement speed or resistances.

Flasks

Keep it simple:

High Mana Flask to ensure fuel consistency.

High Life Flask for emergency recovery.

Avoid complex flask rotations—this build thrives on minimal button presses and flow-state combat.

Playstyle and Mapping Flow

The Infernalist’s gameplay loop is deceptively simple:

Use Despair or Fireball to charge your fuel.

Begin channeling Incinerate and never stop.

Maintain movement—thanks to penalty reduction, you can strafe and reposition freely while your enemies disintegrate.

Against bosses, swap to your shock companion setup for massive multiplicative scaling.

The build’s true joy lies in its rhythm. Once rolling, it feels like conducting a symphony of chaos—purple fire cascading across the map, fuel regenerating invisibly, ignites, detonating like miniature supernovas.