When Path of Exile 2 introduced the Smith of Kitava and its "fire spell on hit" effect, many players were left scratching their heads. Warriors, known for brute strength and melee dominance, seemed the least likely candidates to harness fire spells effectively. After all, true fire spells require heavy investment into Intelligence and fire damage scaling-both far outside the traditional warrior build. For a long time, this mechanic felt like dead weight, a puzzling addition that had no place among giant's blood and bone-shattering might. That is, until now.

After much experimentation and theorycrafting, we've finally found a way to make fire spell on hit not just usable, but synergistic with the Smith of Kitava warrior archetype. The answer is surprisingly simple: Solar Orb.

The Problem: Fire Spells and Warriors Just Don't Mix

At first glance, trying to integrate fire spells into a strength-focused warrior felt impossible. Sure, you could summon a fireball, but it required a massive 178 Intelligence, and even if you managed that somehow, your damage scaling would fall apart without gutting your warrior tree investments. Fire damage scaling nodes were minimal, and diverting to pick up more would cripple the core concept of a melee brute build.

Solar Orb changes everything.

The Solution: Solar Orb -A Fire Spell That Sticks Around

Solar Orb is a fire spell that creates an object of permanence - an orb that remains in play for 10 seconds. Even better, it doesn't require constant recasting or heavy Intelligence investment to be useful.

The key insight was realizing that you could use lower-level Solar Orbs. A level 5 Solar Orb only needs 20 Intelligence - trivial even for a pure strength warrior. This meant that you could keep your full warrior identity intact and still utilize fire spell on hit meaningfully.

But how does this actually help in combat?

Leap and Carry: Solar Orbs on the Move

Whenever you leap into battle with Bone Shatter or similar mobility skills, the Solar Orbs come with you. They aren't stationary like typical totems or traps. Instead, they follow you from pack to pack, maintaining their presence in combat. This is critical because it ensures you're always benefiting from their secondary effects.

These Solar Orbs are then enhanced with Font of Rage, granting rage regeneration per second. As a result, every leap, every hit, every movement creates a cascading effect of rage buildup. Land in a pack, summon a Solar Orb, build rage, kill enemies, leap to the next pack, repeat.The synergy is so smooth it feels almost unfair.

Rage Generation: The True Core of the Build

With Solar Orbs providing consistent rage regeneration, your warrior becomes a raging engine of destruction. Standard rage gain mechanics-like gaining rage on being hit-are unreliable, especially in boss fights where incoming attacks can be slow or sparse. Solar Orbs sidestep this problem entirely, feeding you a steady stream of rage even when enemies aren't actively hitting you.

This allows you to consistently run Berserk, turning your rage into:

46% increased rage effect

48% multiplicative attack damage

All this without sacrificing tankiness.

With maxed resistances (75/75/72/63) and options to push maximum resistances higher with minor skill point investments, the build remains rock-solid in defense.

Fire Spell on Hit: Now Actually Worth It

The fire spell on hit effect from Smith of Kitava isn't just for show anymore. Thanks to Solar Orbs being summoned on leap attacks and sustaining rage generation, the "fire spell" aspect plays a functional role beyond just raw DPS.

Moreover, the 20% increased fire damage that comes bundled with Smith of Kitava now has legitimate value. Although we're not scaling fire damage heavily, every bit helps when tied into rage-fueled, bone-shattering destruction.

Why Not Other Fire Spells?

You might wonder: why not just use Fireball or another classic fire spell? Testing confirmed that while it was possible to swap to high-Intelligence builds and use Fireball, the damage was underwhelming without completely reorienting into elemental scaling nodes. This would dismantle the warrior tree's strengths entirely and felt counterproductive.

Solar Orb, in contrast, complements the existing build perfectly. It doesn't need massive damage scaling - it needs to exist and persist, enabling secondary mechanics like rage and health regeneration.

Font of Blood: Life Regeneration

Solar Orbs also carry another boon: Font of Blood.

While attached to Solar Orbs, you gain substantial life regeneration bonuses. At 220 life regen baseline, boosted further by rage-fueled scaling, you become exceedingly hard to kill even in the heat of battle. As you continue leaping and shattering, you're constantly healing, allowing an ultra-aggressive playstyle.Druid Synergies in the Future

Currently, most fire spells belong to the Elementalist side, not the Warrior or any "primal" archetype. However, looking ahead to the Druid class (teased heavily in previews), new elemental tools or POE 2 Currency Orbs could push this synergy even further.

Druids bring fire-based spells like Volcano and better scaling options for ignite and fire damage - all positioned near Warrior skill trees. In the future, a Warrior-Druid hybrid could lean even harder into fire spell on hit mechanics without sacrificing strength, defense, or melee dominance.

We may one day see a true fire-based warrior archetype thanks to Druids' proximity and synergies.

Final Thoughts: Making the Most of Smith of Kitava

The discovery of Solar Orb's perfect fit marks a turning point. Smith of Kitava's "fire spell on hit" effect no longer needs to be a build-dead zone. Instead, it's now:

An engine for permanent rage generation

A booster for Berserk uptime and effectiveness

A source of health regeneration through Font of Blood

All while maintaining maximum tankiness and melee prowess.

It's a perfect example of the complex beauty of Path of Exile's build system: sometimes the solutions are hidden not in brute force or obvious scaling, but in clever mechanical synergies that transform a supposed weakness into overwhelming strength.

For those running Smith of Kitava warrior builds: Solar Orb is now a must-have.

Leap forward, shatter bones, ignite rage, and finally make full use of everything your build offers - without ever leaving the path of the true warrior.

Quick Build Summary

Class: Warrior (Smith of Kitava)

Key Skills: Bone Shatter, Leap Attack, Berserk

Support Spell: Solar Orb (low-level, minimal Intelligence required)

Main Mechanics: Rage generation via Font of Rage, life regeneration via Font of Blood

Keystone: Resolute Technique (never miss)

Fire Spell On Hit: Used for consistent rage boost, not for DPS

Resistance Caps: 75/75/72/63 (easy to push higher)

If you have other ideas to push this even further -maybe even find better elemental synergies -feel free to share them! Until then, happy shattering,you can get cheap POE 2 Currency Orbs!