Shield Crush Starter Theory - Impale, Attack Speed, and Ancestral Totems

-------------------------------------------------------- FOREWORD AND NOTES: This is a tweaked build from u/Spandauer2129 because I got bored and wanted to see if it was league start viable. Barring Patch Notes nerfing everything to the ground, I think this is a decent starter. This build was made on 7/17 BEFORE Patch notes. If this is popular enough, I will make better versions and see how far I can push it. I plan on making adjustments to the build once patch notes hit and we get the 3.15 passive tree. This build is intended for easy to get gear that doesn't require a lot of resources or investment. Of the listed gear on the build currently, the only pieces that I would say are 'hard' to get are the 2 node Fettle Cluster Jewels. This build is also made as an option for SSF. To my knowledge the listed Uniques are either relatively common Unique drops or farmable via Div Cards (Lioneye's Remorse). I currently do not have an option for a weapon that isn't Prismatic Eclipse. With the great nerfing coming with 3.15, I am going off the expectation that this build will lose about 10-20% damage compared to it's 7/17 state. Estimates for No Cluster + Tabula: Sub 1ex Estimates for 1 Large 2 Small Cluster + Tabula: Sub 3ex (2 node Fettle costs 1 ex once things settle generally) This build is NOT endgame (A9+) optimized. I aimed for at least 1m Sirus DPS and a good mapping focus. Damage calculations are assuming that you are fighting a boss and NOT mapping. This build assumes a double hit, shotgun type damage. On a single hit (assuming max impale stacks) we lose 50% of the Total DPS Elemental Ailment immunity is not factored in. It's getting nerfed in 3.15 and I need to see the numbers before factoring in those options. In theory there should be no problems getting elemental ailment immunity due to how much space on items we have. Chaos Resistance is not factored in, but with the available slots, it should not be very difficult to get 75% chaos resistance. -------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO PAD SHIELD CRUSH DAMAGE: There are two main ways to which I can see Shield Crush getting more damage: The first one is ARMOUR ON SHIELD. This HAS to be flat armor and % increased Armour, and 'increased defences on equipped shield' does not work with increasing Shield Crush damage. The second one is PHYSICAL OR MELEE DAMAGE. This can be flat physical damage added to attacks, flat increased physical damage, increased melee damage, increased damage while holding a shield, and so on. -------------------------------------------------------- YOUR WEAPON IS YOUR SHIELD: The weird part about this build is that your Shield is your weapon. Your actual weapon slot does not matter too much unless it is giving global bonuses (intimidate on hit, global attack speed, leech, etc). Do not focus on getting a high damage weapon for the Shield Crush skill. It's bait. -------------------------------------------------------- HOW THIS BUILD WORKS: This build is partially inspired by Lacerman, where you hit a decent amount a whole lot of times. This naturally works well with impale, so we go for impale instead of bleed. Instead of hard scaling the build out of attack speed like Lacerman does, we put a bigger focus on defence, life, and armor because of the shield. When mapping: Tempest Shield + Blood Rage on map start. Sand stance for charges in maps. Swap to blood stance for tough monsters/boss. Plant Totems in this order: Protector > Warchief. This will spawn 1 protector and 2 warchiefs for the benefits. Multiple Totem support lets you have 3 totems total. Vulnerability: - Can be self cast, tied to CWDT, or a Vuln on Hit ring. Your preference, but Vuln on Hit ring frees up a gem slot. Shield Crush calculations (provided by u/ov_oo) are put on the Lioneye's Remorse Shield and the crafted shield stated as so. The math for the two hit shotgun is assumed for every hit. Assumed math of Shield Crush: 38% Less Attack Speed 2 to 3 added physical damage per 15 armour or evasion rating on shield 100% more Attack Damage -------------------------------------------------------- MECHANICS WE USE IN THIS BUILD: Resolute Technique: We don't crit, so guaranteed hits all the time smooth out the build. Block: Our main source of defense. We block the hit, we take no damage. We also get some cool bonuses to damage and such when we do block. We can also use life gain on block to get health back when we do block. We get up to 79% block AND spell block. Very durable. Armor: We can take some pretty heavy hits assuming everything is up. Throw on the Resistance Ring and check effective HP to see for yourself. Impale: We swing our Shield really fast. Using Impale is best because we can trigger Impale stacks easily and effectively due to our speed. Ancestral Protector + Ancestral Warchief: We use ancestral totems to buff our attack speed and flat damage, and also anoint 'Panopticon' for better effects of our Totem buffs. Blind: We have two ways we can use Blind, which makes enemies have a 50% less chance to hit us. Using either Flesh and Stone (for mapping) or Blood in the Eyes (for bosses) can give us blind. NOTE: Blood in the Eyes is untested as to if it is better as a 4th Ascendancy than Versatile Combatant (it probably isn't). I'm listing the option here anyways for the time being. Leech: We use leech as our life sustain and mana sustain. We will have enough mana sustain to continue attacking with this equation below: (MANA COST x ATTACK RATE) < MANA LEECH ON HIT RATE As long as the above equation is true, then we can infinitely attack something without having to worry about mana. -------------------------------------------------------- PROS AND CONS: + Easy, Effective League Start Choice(Only need a high armor Shield) + Very Tanky with lots of ways to keep your defense up (Armor, Endurance Charges, Vaal Molten Shield, etc) + SSF Friendly. No Uniques Required + Fast mapping with Leap Slam and Movement Flask + No Rumi's Concoction - Not a one button build (Totems, Blood Rage, Tempest Shield, Leap Slam, Shield Crush buttons) - Levelling with a different skill might be better (probably splitting steel skills because of impale) - Untested because new skill (still looks promising, though) - Average Bossing - No Physical Reflect Maps - No Elemental Ailment Immunity (for now, waiting on Patch Notes) -------------------------------------------------------- GEM LINKS: Key: (20/X) = Level/Quality. If you see X on quality, it can be whatever quality. 6L - Shield Crush R G R R R R Explanation: Main skill, duh. This has not been factored in with gem priorities. Shield Crush (21/X - don't know if Quality is worth or not yet) Brutality (20/20) - Raw damage. No chaos or elemental damage though (Atziri's Promise is bait. DONT USE IT) Impale (20/20) - Impale Support Melee Physical Damage (20/20) - Basic damage addition Pulverise (20/20) - Has everything we want: Area of Effect and Damage Fortify (20/20) - 20% less damage taken bonus along with some flat damage bonuses Honorable Mentions: Multistrike (20/20) - This should work with Shield Crush in theory, which should make it feel MUCH better to use. Don't know what to replace atm though - requires testing. My initial guess would be Melee Physical because we have better damage options. Priority Order (raw damage): Shield Crush > Brutality > Impale > Pulverise > Melee Physical > Fortify Priority Order (recommendation): Shield Crush > Impale > Brutality > Fortify > Pulverise > Melee Physical If you're having trouble with survivability, use Fortify for your 4th link. Otherwise, go off of raw damage. 4L 1 - Ancestral Protector + Vaal Ancestral Warchief R R R R Explanation: The attack speed buff along with the flat damage buff is beneficial to us, and using Multiple Totems Support lets us use both totems at once. Should only really need this for tough rares/bosses Vaal Ancestral Warchief (20/X) - Quality doesn't really matter here. We want the buff Ancestral Protector (20/X) - See above Multiple Totems Support (20/X) - For Multiple Totems to use both Protector and Warchief Maim Support (20/X) - Maiming enemies for more damage 4L 2 - Auras. Two Options Explanation: Two options for offense or defense. The former is more raw damage. The latter gives blind for distant targets. More Damage + Warcry(assuming full Pride effect) R R R R Pride (20/X) - It's better numbers compared to Flesh and Stone + Maim. We can maim in other ways. Blood and Sand (6/0) - Area damage + Challenger Charges Dread Banner (20/X) - Guarantees Impale Enduring Cry (20/X) - More Defense/Regen More Defense + No Warcry(Flesh and Stone) R R R R Flesh and Stone (6/X) - Maim on Blood Stance, Blind on Defense. We have high block and this just adds even more defense. Maim Support (20/0) - For Flesh and Stone for better maiming. Blood and Sand - Area damge + Challenger Charges Dread Banner - Guarantees Impale Honorable Mentions: Herald of Purity (20/0) - Not as good Damage, but should work well for levelling. 4L 3 - CWDT + Vulnerability Explanation: Defenses with Molten Shell. Can throw on Vulnerability too if you want. CWDT (7/X) - Take 1000+ damage, it activates. Tinker with the level as you see fit. Vaal Molten Shell (13/X) - We are an armor build, this is the best defence for us. Vall skill can be used on demand. Increased Duration (20/X) - Longer duration for Molten Shell and Vulnerability Vulnerability (10/20 or 20/20) - Quality gives us slightly more chance to bleed. Your decision on if it's CWDT or not. 3L 1 - Shield - Leap Slam Explanation: Movement Skill Leap Slam (20/X) - Typical Movement Skill Faster Attacks (20/X) - Always put this with Leap Slam. Lifetap (1/X) - We keep this at level 1 for a free 20% increased Life from Flasks because of Lifetap. Nifty. Why not Shield Charge? - I don't like Shield Charge, but it should still be good too and just as fast. 3L 2 - Weapon - FILL Explanation: Still figuring out what to put here. Blood Rage (X/X) - Level this as high as you can, as we're a bit dex starved. The attack speed works with Shield Charge, so I assume it works with Shield Crush. Tempest Shield (X/X) - Extra 3% block chance that should persist through maps. OPEN SPACE (I just put Portal here) Note: Since we are using Prismatic Eclipse as our main weapon, you want the sockets to be 1 Blue, 2 Green. 2 Green for attack speed, 1 Blue for Mana leech. -------------------------------------------------------- GEARING BREAKDOWN: WEAPON: Priority - Prismatic Eclipse with G G B sockets Explanation: Prismatic Eclipse gives us global attack speed per green socket, and mana leech on hit per blue socket. Since we only care about our Shield, this is one of the best, cheapest options for us to help pad Shield Crush. NOTE: I did some playing around in PoB to try and find a rare weapon that you can use. The best I could come up with is either a defensive stat stick (ironic since its a weapon) or something that gives attack speed on kill + intimidate on hit. -- SHIELD: Priority - Crafted Shield Budget - Lioneye's Remorse Explanation: A crafted shield will be very easy to do as long because of Essence league. Using Essence of Dread, we can force +400-440 FLAT armor on our shield. This is big because this is actually higher than the T1 flat armor roll on a shield. For a baseline we will want a good life roll and the ability to craft % increased armor on our shield to hit 2000 armour. The best shield for us to use for damage is an Item Level 73 or higher Colossal Tower Shield. A shaper influenced Colossal Tower Shield is best in slot for Life Gain on Block, but not required early on. The bar for Life Gain on Block is only Level 68. We go for 73 or higher for the T1 life roll and the T3 % increased Armor roll. An easy way to get a 1900-2100 armor shield is by following the steps below. 1. Find/Purchase an ilvl 73+ Colossal Tower Shield 2. Scour. Armorer's Scrap to 20% 3. Use a Deafening Essence of Dread on it. Ensure one prefix slot is open and % increased armor isn't taken. 3a. If you want a high life roll or other mods that aren't the armor mod, then keep using Deafening Essences of Dread. 4. Craft tier 3 increased Armour (56-74%) on it. You can find this in maps. Tier 2 increased Armour is from Kitava fight. Assuming no other modifiers, you will have a BARE MINIMUM 1800 armor shield for use with Shield Crush. This equals 600 - 840 added physical damage for Shield Crush without touching the base damage. Sweet! -- HELMET: Priority - Defenses Helmet Explanation: Life and Resistance Stick helmet. Armor base is what you want. -- BODY ARMOR: Priority - 6L Armor Item (preferrably Astral Plate) Budget - Tabula Rasa Other Cool Options - Belly of the Beast Explanation: Using a 6L rare will let us craft ailment immunity on our chest (assuming that it's not nerfed to oblivion), and can also allow us to put influences on our chest that could give nice QoL. A tabula rasa will be enough for a while, as we only really need a 6 link. Using a chestpiece for extra life and defence makes it easier to hit resistance cap, though. Belly of the Beast option: Belly gives a lot of life, good Armour/Evasion, and good resistances. It's normally 4-5ex around league start and drops to 2-3ex after a week or so. If you just want more life to stack on, this is your best option. Good Body Armor Influence Modifiers: Redeemer: Nearby Enemies are Blinded (Prefix, ilvl75), % chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Hit (Suffix, ilvl80) Hunter: % increased maximum life (Prefix, ilvl85) Warlord: +1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems (Prefix, ilvl80), Socketed Attacks have -15 to Total Mana Cost (Suffix, ilvl85) -- GLOVES: Priority - Rare Spiked Gloves with Life, Attack Speed, and Added Physical Budget - Rare Gloves with Life and Resists Explanation: Shield Crush is a melee skill, so we get extra Melee damage with the spiked gloves. Added damage is just a bonus, attack speed is better than flat damage. Crafting 'increased damage with non-vaal skills during soul gain prevention' should increase our damage after using molten shell or throwing down Warchiefs, but it's not adding it in for some reason. -- BOOTS: Priority - Rare Armor boots with Life, Resists, and 30% Movement Speed Budger - Rare Armor boots with an open suffix to craft Movement Speed Explanation: Boots with 30% movement speed feels the best, but if you're on a tight budget then search an open prefix and the life/resists you need, then craft on the movement speed for 20-24% (found in Oriath after killing Kitava). -- AMULET: Priority - Carnage Heart Budget - Turqoise Amulet Honorable Mentions - Deafening Essence of Zeal Turqoise Amulet Explanation: Carnage Heart is cheap, efficient, and gives us everything we need for a super low price. If you can't get a Carnage Heart, run a Turqoise Amulet with Life and Resists. Use Deafening Essences of Zeal on the Amulets for more Attack speed. ANOINT: Panopticon Explanation: Panopticon makes our buff effects on our totems better, which means we both swing faster and we also do better flat damage. It's best in slot. If you have life problems, anoint Discipline and Training. If you have resistance problems, anoint Diamond Skin or Cloth and Chain. You can also throw out 2 passive points to allocate to the nodes. The recipe for these two anoints are very cheap, though. -- RINGS: Priority - Life and Resist Rare Rings (Vermillion or Two-Stone or Prismatic), with Vulnerability on Hit if you can find it Budget - Two-Stone Rings with Life Mana Problems - Praxis Explanation: Like most other rares, these are for defences. Vulnerability on hit is nice for QoL, but we don't really need it in mapping early on. We cant to craft 'Non-channeling skills have -X to total mana cost' in order to keep our leech up while attacking. This makes it so we don't have to run something such as Soul Taker in order to keep attacking. -- BELT: Priority - Stygian Vise with Life and Resists, Hunter Influence for more Life if you want Budget - Standard belt with Life and Resists Honorable Mentions: Soul Tether (bosses) Explanation: Stygian Vise is best in slot for life and resistances. Soul Tether is great for bosses because we will always be leeching due to Immortal Ambition, which enables cluster nodes (if you're using a cluster). -- ABYSS JEWEL: Priority - Life and Onslaught on Kill. Increased Attack speed or increased physical damage for more damage Budget - Life and Onslaught on Kill Explanation: More Life, More Defences, makes life easier for us. Abyss Jewels are a great option to help band-aid things such as attributes and resistances. Onslaught is nice, but is not required. Do not go for Unholy Might on kill. We run brutality so it won't do anything. -- FLASKS: Divine Life Flask of Staunching (Corrupted Blood + Bleeding) TOP PRIORITY Lion's Roar Basalt Flask of Warding Quicksilver Flask of Heat Blood of the Karui Honorable Mentions: Forbidden Taste (ONLY if max Chaos Resistance), Quartz Flask Explanations: Staunching Life Flask to deal with Corrupted Blood + Bleeding. We are weak to DoT effects. This is a must by maps. Lion's Roar for Damage + Armor for Molten Shell Basalt Flask for extra defenses and Curse Removal Quicksilver Flask for Freeze Removal Blood of the Karui for Panic Flask if you take a big hit. Forbidden Taste is nice if you have high Chaos Resistance, but that's it. DO NOT use it if you don't have maxed Chaos Resistance. Remember that you can use the Menagerie (Bestiary) to craft flask suffixes like Staunching, Heat, and Warding. Don't burn all your alts on flasks if you don't have to. -- JEWELS: Priority: Viridian Jewels with %life and 1 or 2 of the mods listed below: Increased Attack Speed Increased Attack Speed while holding a Shield increased Melee damage increased attack damage while holding a shield Honorable Mentions: % of attack damage leeched as mana (You do not need this if you have a blue socket Prismatic Eclipse Corruptions to keep in mind: Corrupted Blood Immunity Explanation: Jewels get more pricey the more you look for in them, so start with %life and one of the listed modifiers listed above then work up from there. Jewels are also a great spot to band-aid things such as resistances or attributes. Do not look for % of attack damage leeched as mana + %life, they're very expensive. Choose leech + an offensive node instead. Watcher's Eye: % chance to deal double damage while using Pride - Cheap damage boost since we attack so much Impales you inflict last 2 additional hits while using pride - VERY Expensive, but a really good damage boost. This is a super endgame item. -- CLUSTER JEWELS: LARGE: Priority: 8 Passive Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight Jewel (increased attack damage or increased attack damage while holding a shield) Explanation: Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight give us attack speed, leech, and bonus damage while leeching. It's everything we want. As long as we are leeching, which we should be due to mana leech or Immortal Ambition, the bonuses apply. SMALL: Priority: 2 Passive Fettle Jewel Explanation: Good life nodes. Pretty pricey, just swap the Fettle jewels for standard jewels if they're too high price for you. -------------------------------------------------------- ENCHANTS: Helmet: 'Ancestral Protector gives X% increased attack speed while active' OR 'Blood Rage gives X% increased attack speed' Explanation: Since attack speed is our best steroid for damage and we don't know the Shield Crush bonuses, you want attack speed on Acestral Protector or Blood Rage. If you want higher raw damage, go Ancestral Protector. If you want consistent higher damage, go Blood Rage. Ancestral Protector attack speed is TECHNICALLY better. Boots: 'X% increased attack and cast speed if you have killed recently' OR 'X% chance to avoid stun if you have killed recently' Explanation: Attack speed is our best steroid, so this is straight forward. Stun avoidance is nice for mapping if you're having problems with that. Gloves: This doesn't matter. Do what you like. The damage increase is so minimal that it doesn't matter too much. -------------------------------------------------------- ASCENDANCY: Skill Order: Arena Challenger > Painforged > Versatile Combatant > Violent Retaliation OR Blood in the Eyes Arena Challenger - Challenger Charges for movespeed and attack speed. Best for going through acts. Painforged - On the way to Versatile Combatant, which is where all our defense is at. Versatile Combatant - Most of our defence. Just in time for maps where defence really matters. Violent Retaliation - This is probably better for mapping because of the damage boost and the block boost. Blood in the Eyes - Better Maim and Blind on enemies (mostly rares/bosses) when mowing them down with Shield Crush. Violent Retaliation is PROBABLY better, but I want to test Blood in the Eyes and see. Blood in the Eyes looks better for Bossing, but this doesn't really seem to be a bossing build. -------------------------------------------------------- RECOMMENDED LEVELLING UNIQUES: To be written, likely after patch notes. NOTE: I'm not expecting anything out of the ordinary here, but I want to wait and see what Patch Notes will say before writing anything down. Assume the usual Goldrim, Wanderlust, etc. -------------------------------------------------------- PANTHEON AND BANDITS: MAJOR: Soul of Arakaali - Block builds are weak against DOT effects. This is the best major keystone to help us mitigate that. Honorable Mentions: Brine King - Might be better with Flask changes. We have to see on patch notes. Soul of Solaris - Big Bossing (Maven, Sirus, etc) MINOR: Soul of Shakari - More DOT and Chaos Damage mitigation BANDITS: Kill All - We need the passive points. No other options are good for us. -------------------------------------------------------- LEVELLING: To be written, likely after patch notes. NOTE: Since Shield Crush is reliant on Shield Stats, it will probably be bad to level with as a starter. Current plan is to level with Lancing Steel or another Melee Skill that's good with impale (slams?) -------------------------------------------------------- WRAP-UP: Honestly I thought this wasn't going to have much potential when I initially made it, but it turned out to be something that looks REALLY promising, even with a very small budget. This build should be very easy to scale up at least to A9, but I don't expect to see this as some bossing build. It should be an efficient, fastish mapping build thanks to Challenger Charges and Leap Slam. --------------------------------------------------------