[POE] My League Starter - Shield Crush Slayer Build Guide - 3.28 Mirage League

------------------------------------------------------------------------ PSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WATCH THE FULL VIDEO AND READ THE NOTES SECTION BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS. I will be more than happy to help either on DIscord or Twitch MANA ISSUES EARLY ON Mana can be a bit rough at the start. Once you get to the first life mastery, take the one that shifts 15% mana cost to life to help a little. Then near the end of Act 2 or start of Act 3, take the small leech node. It helps mostly against monster packs, not much for single target. It makes mana feel a bit less bad. The reservation nodes also help since you want to run Auras. The more damage you deal, the more leech helps so this is only an early game problem. You can also not use Pride as soon as you get it, Blood and Sand and Herald of Ash is good enough and gives you more unreserved mana. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shield Base Type -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shield Crush damage scales both from armour and evasion. Having a hybrid shield gives slightly more total than only Armour based shield do. Also handy if you want to get spell suppression (see below) During the campaign, the base type does not really matter. Pure Armour, Pure Evasion or Armour+Evasion base types are all fine. Take whichever gives you the most damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Spell Suppression, YES or NO ---------------------------------------------------------------- Always nice to have, and also always annoying to get to a 100%. The answer is, only if you think it is worth the trouble. I don't think it is necessary personaly. Might be easier with the Genesis Tree, we'll have to try. The shield is especially difficult to do, unless you have a fractured base. You cannot only get it through gear alone. Here are some values (not max values but close to.) Body Armour: 20 (Max 22) Shield:20 (Max 22) Boots, Helmet, Gloves: 12 each (36) (Max 14 each) (Plus some from Eldritch Implicit on Gloves.) Either 27% from the Entrench notable wheel or 10% from the Entrench Notbale wheel + Inveterate annointment (15). Don't forget we get 2 annointment now (not counting Double annoint Blight amulets) with the new base type belt from Mirage Blight. Might be the way to go if desired. Personaly, I would go with 2 points + Inveterate annoint. I would just remove 2 masteries that give + max resistances or life nodes depending. I would prefer trying to get a +1 max frenzy pair of gloves from Warlord Influence but it is also viable. With better rolls on gear you could even not take any suppress points on the tree with Inveterate annointed if you take the implicit. I do not include it in the equipment as the gear would be the same, just with suppress on it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Iron Reflexes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pretty Good to shift evasion to armour for more physical damage reduction. Since we're block, we already have a good amount of avoidance. HOWEVER, do not take the keystone if using Lethal Pride in the nearby jewel socket, which is the only one where it is worth in this build guide. The reason is the jewel changes the keystone to something else, which is horrible for our build. Using a Physical damage Light of meaning instead of Lethal pride gives about the same damage but it will likely be very expensive. With this you can run iron Reflexes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Why Endless Hunger and Not Headsman?? -------------------------------------------------- Headsman feels good when mapping but that's kinda it in my opinion. The 20% culling strike is not that big of a deal. You can always link culling strike to leap slam for example and cull at 10%. Endless Hunger Gives us even more attack speed, which is great. We also are Immune to stun and Bleeding as well as leeching a lot more when Mapping thanks to overkill damage. This is my recommendation as I love this added defense on the build with already good damage. You can Still take Unwavering Stance on the tree, deal with Bleed another way and take Headsman if you prefer, nothing wrong with that. It is just my prefered way of doing things. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Uniques ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not add uniques to my league starters as compulsory items because I want my guides to be SSF friendly. Even common ones. However, I do add them in the item list at the bottom as suggestions. For example, Prismatic Eclipse with 3 Green Socket will give more damage thant the Warlord sword with impale effect. But since it is a unique, not in the build, only suggested. Watch the video to hear me explain the Uniques and why they are good if interested. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jewels ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Again, not socketed in the guide, but suggested in the list. (Except from Lethal Pride since it has to go in the specified socket) I do this for 2 reasons 1. Some people think they need the exact stats. While the stats I put on jewels are all good, you won't likely get the exact same 4. You might need more attributes for example, so take one with damage, attack speed, life (whatever it is you want) and also attributes. 2. It kind of inflates PoB numbers a little and I want to avoid giving a false impression. I am trying this for the first time so let me know how you feel about this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Items & Skill Trees ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The way I make guides is as follows: Always use the item sets and the skill tree that both have the same name. The only exception is for the leveling trees obviously. Progress through the leveling trees up to Red Maps. Use this one until your gear is about as good and start looking at Cluster Jewels (Tree and items) to upgrade towards this setup. The skill trees are in order anyway for clarity. --------------------------------------------------------------------- New 7th Link Tech from Mirage League -------------------------------------------------------- These pseudo 7th links are all level 1 support gems. There is a new currency item that allows you to corrupt a level 20 gem with a random support gem of a given color. I will of course test this but at first glance, Fortify Support is probably the best one to get there. At level 1, Fortify support gives Fortify and 10% More damage. You could then replace Fortify Support from the build with something else for even more damage. Impale support would be alright too since we could save skill points since it gives 60% impale chance. Momentum Support and Faster Attacks support would be good gems to replace Fortify with if you ever get this outcome.