Is there a good build to start with Chaos damage on a new character?

[Onlysane1]

Or is it usually leveling a character and then respeccing over to Chaos damage?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

occultist, arcanist, inquisitor all have skills that natively lets you do chaos attacks during levelling
other stuff can be unlocked during levelling with certain MIs https://www.grimtools.com/db/search?query=%22chaos%20damage%20to%22%20%22rare%22%20%22level%3A%2094%22&in_description=1&exact_match=0 (exists in various lower level version too, just using 94 to get rid of duplicates)

[Neit]

Well there are multiple ways you can approach this. And it depends on what kind of build you want to play.

You can build around skills that do native Chaos damage, for example Sigil or Doom bolt. Or you can pick something that's easy to convert to chaos damage, by some easily accessible MI. Or you can do both at once. Usually, you won't get full damage conversion during leveling anyway.

This is obviously not possible for all builds, and sometimes you need to go different way, what already worked for me on multiple characters, was leveling with fire, as items allowed slowly converting to fire/chaos, chaos/fire and if possible purely chaos. This approach works well, because you can use same/similar devotion setup for both damage types. Nice example of this can be Chaos Fire Strike builds, there was a thread about that recently.

But this might not be always possible or viable, depending on build, so you might also end up leveling with completely different setup and switching everything later.

EDIT: Thread I mentioned, not exactly the same topic, but it can serve as an inspiration: https://steamcommunity.com/app/219990/discussions/0/4357869680025049241/

[SteveTheFox]

demolitionist+occultist=chaos fire strike
you don't even need the darkblaze set
look for a medal wich convert firetrike into chaos damage (sigil of chton)

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Stefano:

look for a medal wich convert firetrike into chaos damage (sigil of chton)

that would be the very definition of a build you spec into at end 😅

[Catalytic]

I leveled a Sentinel (Occultist/Oathbreaker) with a fire/chaos build. The key was getting into the hellscape C'thonian areas and getting Obsidian Defender shield which has a large chaos base damage. The high priest character right before the Loghorrean drops a sword which gives chaos/fire and has bonuses to Possession and Soleal's Fire. It's relatively easy to get a decent one. It's an incredibly powerful build, even as you're leveling, from 40ish once you can get the sword and shield.

Edit: Link the Crate Forum post on the build: https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-9-8-1-2-0-3-darkness-palpable-s-b-chaos-rf-sentinel-sr-vid/132111

Link to Grimtools:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWdXGnZ