Today we're diving into one of the most fascinating and creative builds to come out of  POE 2 Currency era-a true mechanical masterpiece built around Mahuxotl's Machination, Rage Vortex of Berserking, and some clever snapshot interactions that turn an already strong skill into an unstoppable force of nature. The goal? To create a powerful, tanky melee character that converts nearly all incoming damage into chaos, maintains 85% chaos resistance, and can melt bosses with infinite rage-fueled vortexes-all for under 50 divines.

If you're looking for a build that's both off-meta and brilliantly designed, this one's a showcase of how far creative thinking can take you in PoE.

The Core of the Build-Mahuxotl's Machination

At the heart of this build lies the unique shield Mahuxotl's Machination, a complex defensive powerhouse that grants six keystones: Divine Flesh, Everlasting Sacrifice, Immortal Ambition, Corrupted Soul, Vaal Pact, and Eternal Youth. For most builds, this combination is chaos-but in the hands of a Pathfinder, it becomes an elegant web of synergy.

Let's break it down:

 Divine Flesh converts 50% of elemental damage taken into chaos and grants +5% maximum chaos resistance. This is a cornerstone of our defenses.

 We expand on this by using a Lethal Pride jewel with the Tempered by War keystone to convert the remaining elemental damage into chaos. The result? We no longer need to worry about cold or lightning resistance-all elemental hits become chaos, which we can easily mitigate with our massive chaos res.

 Everlasting Sacrifice grants +5% to all maximum resistances for 4 seconds after reaching full Energy Shield, at the cost of sacrificing all ES.

 Combine this with a Ruby Flask and Pathfinder's flask effect scaling, and we're looking at 85% chaos resistance and 80%+ fire resistance, making elemental damage nearly irrelevant.

It's a beautiful defense loop-high resistances, massive mitigation, and a consistent way to refresh ES despite Immortal Ambition's downside.

Solving the Shield's Downsides

Mahuxotl's comes with three major drawbacks, and each one is addressed brilliantly in this build.

1.Immortal Ambition prevents Energy Shield regeneration or recharge, and causes you to lose 5% of ES per second.

2.The solution? Pathfinder's Master Surgeon combined with Replica Sorrow of the Divine and Life Flasks that also recover ES. Every flask use tops you up, countering ES decay entirely.

3.Vaal Pact removes life regeneration, which can kill sustain for most melee builds.

4.Instead, we embrace it by focusing on instant leech. Because Vaal Pact makes melee leech instant, we pick a skill that naturally benefits from leech-Rage Vortex of Berserking.

5.Eternal Youth halves life regeneration and diverts it to ES recharge, which would normally conflict with Immortal Ambition.

6.In this setup, it's irrelevant since our flask sustain and instant leech handle all recovery needs.

The synergy is airtight: flasks sustain both life and ES, while leech handles damage recovery.

The Main Skill-Rage Vortex of Berserking

Here's where the magic really happens. Rage Vortex of Berserking is a unique melee skill that snapshots your stats when cast, meaning the game "remembers" the state of your buffs, weapon, and gem setup at the moment of activation.

The trick?

We weapon-swap into a high-link setup with influence mods that massively boost Rage Vortex's damage, cast it once, and then swap back into our main gear-Mahuxotl's Machination and Paradoxica. The Vortex keeps all those boosted stats even after swapping back, while we gain the shield's immense defenses.

Essentially, we're getting a 9-link Rage Vortex for the cost of a simple swap.

The damage scales through:

 Physical to elemental conversion (via Heatshiver and Paradoxica).

 Crit capping through Ambush, which ensures guaranteed crits for single hits.

 Rage mechanics that multiply both attack speed and damage.

The result is a devastating spinning vortex that lasts over a minute on bosses and burns through maps like wildfire.

The Secret to Infinite Rage-Chains of Emancipation Combo

Maintaining Rage is key to this build, and instead of the typical Chainbreaker route, this setup uses one of the most creative self-curse loops in Path of Exile.

The item in question: Chains of Emancipation.

It has the unique line:

"When you lose Temporal Chains, you gain maximum Rage."Here's how it works:

 We use Shackles of the Wretched gloves, which reflect socketed curses back to the player.

 Socket Temporal Chains in the gloves, linked with Hex Touch and Bladefall of Thruth (from the Sleep skill).

 Every time we use Bladefall, it curses enemies-and because of Shackles, it also curses us.

 Using Dusk Ring with "Reduced Curse Duration" and Hex Mastery on the tree, we cut Temporal Chains' duration by 99%. That means the curse instantly expires, granting us maximum Rage through the belt.

This self-curing loop keeps Rage permanently maxed, allowing Rage Vortex to spin indefinitely as long as you're attacking.

It's a flawless system-fully automated, fully consistent, and completely insane.

Gear Breakdown

Let's talk equipment. Nearly every slot is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Weapon:

 Paradoxica with high physical damage and attack speed. Avoid Multistrike-it breaks Ambush timing.

Shield:

 Mahuxotl's Machination (ideally corrupted for +Life).

Helmet:

 Heatshiver with Fire Resistance and Reservation Efficiency corruption. Provides huge damage via cold-to-fire scaling.

Body Armour:

 Doppelgänger Guise for 40% less damage taken. This synergizes perfectly with our already massive resistances.

Gloves:

 Shackles of the Wretched with +1 Frenzy corruption.

Boots:

 Darkray Vectors for Frenzy Charge stacking.

Amulet:

 Marylene's Fallacy-insane crit multiplier when paired with Ambush.

Rings:

 Dusk Ring crafted with Essence of Suffering for Tier 1 life and attributes.

 Coiling Whispers for chaos damage scaling and synergy with our rage setup.

Belt:

 Chains of Emancipation, the linchpin of our Rage sustain.

Flasks:

 Replica Sorrow of the Divine (Life + ES recovery).

 Ruby Flask with increased effect and shock avoidance.

 Amethyst Flask for curse reduction.

 Life Flask with instant recovery and immunities.

 Tincture Flask with elemental damage modifiers.

Passive Tree and Ascendancy

The build's tree prioritizes Frenzy Charges, flask efficiency, and chaos mitigation.

Core Passives:

 Tempered by War (from Lethal Pride).

 Reduced Curse Duration.

 Fire and Cold Damage over Time scaling.

 Sword nodes for crit and attack speed.

 Reservation Efficiency for aura management.

Ascendancy:

 Nature's Adrenaline-for attack and movement speed.

 Master Surgeon-flask sustain and recovery.

 Nature's Boon-reduced elemental damage taken.

 Master Alchemist-elemental ailment immunity and flask effect.

Cluster Jewels:

 2 Large: Calamitous, Feed the Fury, Martial Prowess.

 3 Medium: Magnifier, Titanic Threat.

 1 Small Reservation Efficiency cluster.

Key Jewels:

 Watcher's Eye (Cold conversion and Precision flask gain).

 Stormshroud (Ailment immunity).

 Lethal Pride (Rage and Strength bonuses).

 Forbidden Flame/Flesh (to mirror Pathfinder utility nodes).

Gem Links

Main 6-Link (Weapon):

 Rage Vortex of Berserking

 Ice Bite

 Fortify

 Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks

 Power Charge on Crit

 Hypothermia

Body Armour:

 Phase Run + Molten Shell + Enhance

 Withering Step + Summon Flame Golem + Automation

Gloves:

 Bladefall + Temporal Chains (Lvl 1) + Hex Touch (Lvl 2) + Increased AoE

Helmet:

 Flesh and Stone + Hatred + Arctic Armour + Herald of Ash

Boots:

 Ambush + Mark on Hit + Assassin's Mark + Precision

How It Plays

In maps, the rhythm is simple but satisfying:

1.Enter a zone and activate flasks.

2.Use Bladefall once to trigger the self-curse loop-this gives you full Rage.

3.Cast Ambush for crit cap.

4.Weapon swap to your damage setup, cast Rage Vortex, then swap back.

5.Use Phase Run to zoom through enemies while Rage Vortex obliterates everything.

Against bosses, the build's sustain and uptime are unmatched. You can maintain Rage Vortex for over a minute straight, and the denser the fight, the longer it lasts thanks to flask charges and instant leech.

Final Thoughts

This Rage Vortex Pathfinder is one of the most ingenious builds of Path of Exile 3.26-a carefully crafted combination of defensive layering, flask synergy, snapshotting, and self-curse mechanics. It's not a league-start budget build, but for under 50 divines, it's an absolute powerhouse that can tackle endgame content safely and stylishly.

It's tanky, explosive, and unlike anything else in the current meta-the perfect build for players who love mechanical depth and buy POE 2 Currency.

So grab your flasks, spin up that Rage Vortex, and watch Wraeclast burn in chaos-fueled glory.