[3.13] Scarfuncle's Shield Charge Impaling Gladiator -Max Block, Great speed, Pack Explosions

April 21 2021 - No updates for 3.14. The nerf to explode chests hurts all melee, so pivoting to an explode offhand is recommended. Explode chest nerf may not make much difference... we will see!

Feb 15 2021 - New mostly min-maxed POB (TL;DR 33m dps) - https://pastebin.com/cZgzsfz9

Feb 7 2021 - New budget POB updated - more budget, more dps https://pastebin.com/Rrnp4ehR

Jan 13 2021 - GGG gave shield charge 10% more base damage and 40% more armour/evasion scaling damage! This makes the budget model 26% stronger

Nov 11 2020 - Shield Charge Berserker guide online (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2991533/page/1#p23677877)

Oct 5, 2020 - Updated curse section to mention Vulnerability (bossing) Vs Punishment (clearing).

Sept 21 2020 - New POB including the alt gems up - https://pastebin.com/fANKExpL

Sept 19 2020 -I recommend equipping a random steel skill like shattering steel and using the "Call of steel" skill you get with it. It does a lot of AoE damage for cleanup and costs nothing.

Sept 18 2020 - 3.12 has seen a dps buff even without new gems. Compared to 3.11, this build has increased 10% on low and high end DPS ~New POB link added (https://pastebin.com/Hbfc2yvL).
Sept 17 2020 - Alt gems are out! Here are ones I've identified that are good for this build. Buffs all over!

Shield Charge - Increased damage
Impale support - additional impale
Close combat - 40% increased effect of close combat on other skills
Flesh and stone - Buff grants 20% increased damage if you've change stance recently
Pride - Either alt gem works is an improvement.
Pulverise - Less attack speed, more attack damage.
Reckoning - 40% chance to debilitate OR 20% increased cooldown
Riposte - 20% chance to gain onslaught
Ruthless - 10% increased attack speed

Aug 3 2020 - Added Glorfindal's POB link for those who want to see what adding serious end game gear can do for this build. I'm constantly impressed how this build has something for the first time player and the end-game completionist. Shield Charge is amazing <3

July 11 2020 - The guide is complete for harvest. I updated a video showing what clearing looks like with Devastator and the new gloves.
Notes

The main concepts of this build remain in 3.11, but with a loss to single target damage (goodbye warcries and rage!). We received a big boost to clear DPS in return though thanks to Devastator and these new gloves

We are still shaper viable for 3.11. It will take being ~lvl 95 and obtaining over 6k life but yes it is doable.

Pros
*Perfect for a leaguestarter - I've started with this build every league since this guide was published.
*Provides speed without compromising dps or defenses.
*Can facetank most content because it is at max block at nearly all times
*Can function entirely on rares making it excellent for a "craft-centric" league- absolutely SSF viable up to Elder and t16s.
*Can run on potato PCs.
* Stuns most bosses up to about t15 with no investment in stun.
*Basic gear is cheap! A 1c prismatic eclipse is the only unique I'd strongly suggest you get. You can make your own shield for 10c

Cons
*Some maps layouts just aren't made for Shield charge - we prefer straight shots (then again, most builds do).
*This is not COC Ice Nova - it's not going to clear whole screens. This is the tradeoff we make when we have beefy defenses and make a build on a budget. Besides the recommended unique armour, nothing else costs over 1ex.
*The tooltip damage is wildly inaccurate. Path of building community fork gives us the real numbers, so if you’re unwilling to download the POB community fork, it will be difficult to gauge endgame damage (post-level 90).
*Prefers to avoid no leech maps – No regen maps can be overcome with a mana potion. Phys reflect is overcome with a sextant.

You shield charge into stuff and hit them like a truck. Then, if the enemy didn't die, holding shield charge at close range attacks without moving. For clearing, you hold the button down and point your mouse in the direction of the enemies and it just zooms, popping and exploding packs as it goes! Our unique gloves, the new "call of steel" skill, and the punishment curse all work together to clear packs like crazy. An explode chest comes into play late game.

For bosses, you switch to blood mode, pop the flasks, and partner with your totem buddy until you’re done. Other options are vaal haste and tossing a banner down for a temporary boost.

The build primarily relies on Shield Charge, attack speed, life, “More” physical damage, impale stacks, and scaling added physical damage and effect of non-curse auras. We don't use any elemental damage, critical hits, spell damage, or minions so avoid all these on your gear.

This build is constantly improving - The videos near the top show where the build currently stands. It is a powerful and fun playstyle. Old videos will not show explodey mods.
Six Link setup:

Rippy T16 mapping w/exposions(Ritual)- https://youtu.be/mtqmN8MG_Xs

Level 85 clearing https://youtu.be/XNBwRIS7Ix8 (note this is the Berserker version, it is 80% similar.

Typical mapping gameplay (Harvest)- https://youtu.be/golykO-Ntj0
Shaper - lvl 95: https://youtu.be/ni8yLgk2ieM
Pit of the Chimera - Cleared with Delirium lvl 95: https://youtu.be/Kk39a3IdtEk
Deathless Simulacrum - Waves 10-20 lvl 94: https://youtu.be/HQMLqvMuCPc

Elder lvl 94: https://youtu.be/B6pwUnFt18s
Clearing level 94: https://youtu.be/4bz-CcVYcqU

Five Link setup:

Clearing lvl 92: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFDJaKeQVyc&feature=youtu.be

Chimera Boss lvl 92: https://youtu.be/HsRoVmwa7Ac

Cortex lvl 93: https://youtu.be/lGOuUFMg4k4

https://pastebin.com/Rrnp4ehR

Mostly min-maxed super gear https://pastebin.com/cZgzsfz9

To see accurate numbers, I suggest the POB community fork.
To download Path of Building Community fork: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/fiy93d/localidentity_community_path_of_building_fork/

The pastebin above is far more descriptive. For newer players who don't have Path of Building, or for those who just want a quick peek at what the common passives are, see these links:

Level 67 www.poeurl.com/c03y
You will need a small respec between 66 and 90
Level 94 www.poeurl.com/c03J
The extra passives left over are for the large cluster jewel.

Arena Challenger>Painforged>Versatile combatant>Violent retaliation.

Main Attack:
Shield charge gains bonuses from our high armour shield, which also makes up for the lack of armour on our chest. Shield charge gets us up close, so we depend on high block to tank everything. The Melee phys damage support, brutality, pulverise, and impale support add "more" damage, which makes them excellent supports. Conc effect adds great damage if you have a blue socket.

Trigger Skills:

Reckoning is the better of the two because it can activate twice as often as riposte and it is an AOE skill, which means it benefits from area damage and AOE that you're already using for shield charge. Riposte requires more dexterity, but it is green so it fits in the Prismatic Eclipse very well. You can support it with culling strike or close combat to grant extra dps to shield charge.

Riposte and Reckoning gain extra damage from the painforged passive, but their real utility is adding supports. The culling strike, close combat, end charge on melee stun, curse on hit, blind, chance to bleed, or whatever casual debuffs you can link to these trigger skills are your silent buddies in combat. Use em, love em.

Utilities:

Blood rage grants us frenzy charges and life leech which provides us a way to recover without using the life potion. The build makes use of leech. Frenzies are incredibly useful for us because it gives damage ,move speed, and faster life regen due to leeching.

Molten shell and vaal molten shell can provide extra protection. Not really necessary for the build, but I use it for leveling sometimes. Drop it if you're struggling for room or if you've reached max block.

A warcry is optional, but enduring cry provides so much casual regeneration that it's totally worth it to take. You can use more offensive warcries, but I like this extra defense.

Ancestral Warchief seems like an odd choice for this build, since its DPS is based off your weapon rather than your shield. Its utility comes from the 18-32% more melee damage when it's up. I can't tell you how many times I have used my totems to help in Uber lab or to proc culling strike. It even gets fortify and resolute technique because it uses your weapon!

Vaal haste is great if you wish to use it. It will give extra attack and movement speed. We don't reserve the aura - we just use the skill. It gains a lot from our aura effectiveness nodes.

Call of Steel isn't listed, but we do use Call of Steel as a utility while leveling up to clear packs.

Auras and Banners:


This build makes use of "increased effect of non-curse aura" mods, so we get a surprising amount of damage here. Dread banner is required for this build. We need that impale chance and effectiveness. Pride adds over 20% more damage to the build and combines with the watchers eye to grant us over ~10% chance to do double damage each attack. Blood and sand add lots of DPS for barely any investment. More DPS means more stuns and leech which makes your offense start to feel like a defense.

Flesh and Stone provides on the fly defense and offense (don't forget to link to maim!) and grants us tons of attack speed due to our Arena Challenger Ascendency passive. Sand mode is excellent for AOE in combination with the AOE from the new versatile stance wheel, carcass jack, and pulverise.

Curses

I use punishment 95% of the time. It gives you fantastic clearing abilities. For big bosses like Siris, you'll want to switch to vulnerability since you're only facing one opponent. Once you get an explodey chest, just use vulnerability.

Option 1 - Cast When Damage Taken



CWDT tempest shield+punishment is so useful because god knows we're all too lazy to self cast stuff. set and forget for easy block chance. You can link a guard skill like molten shell or immortal call to CWDT too if you wish.

Option 2 - Curse on hit
Note Curse on hit Changed to "Hextouch" in 3.12.

This option will require you to selfcast tempest shield or find a way cwdt it. I prefer this option because reckoning has such a large aoe that you curse everything all the time. I even link life gain on hit here for extra life!

Option 3 - Curse on hit gloves


Late game, you'll just want to get vulnerability on hit as a corrupt implicit on your gloves.

Leveling Skills
Quick links for endgame Shield Charge
Note on Shield charge Keybind

Acts 1-10

A note for players doing this as a leaguestart- Like most melee builds, this one can be a rough leaguestart. It kicks into gear once you ascend around level 35. If you don't give up, you will be rewarded!


For your first attack skill, get Cleave from the quest to use until we get shield charge at level 10. This rapier type of sword with Cleave (lvl 1) combined with onslaught (lvl 4) provides the speediest rise to level 10.




At level 4, pick up Blood and Sand. Start using it with cleave to get a sense for how they work together - we will use blood and sand modes constantly. You can abandon cleave for shield charge at level 10.



Grab War banner for passive accuracy. You can toss the flag down, but I never do.


Riposte and Reckoning are available at level 4 as well. Throw them somewhere in your gear to passively grant you good effects when you link them to supports. You can link them to onslaught, maim, life gain on hit, and especially endurance charge on melee stun. This endurance charge machine works wonders, but endurance charge on melee stun can be dropped when you get the aggressive bastion passive.

Grab Ancestral protector (level 4) and use it for bosses. Standing near it gives you more attack speed. Decoy totem is actually really good for these starting levels too!



Once you’re level 10, start using shield dash immediately. At this point, your weapon's damage no longer matters - your shield's armour/evasion become your "weapon." See the equipment sections for more on this, but basically look for high armour on your shields.

Early links you should consider for shield charge are Onslaught (Level 1) and Maim (Level 8). You may be tempted by elemental skills like added fire or lightning damage support, but get used to not using any elemental damage. Later we lose all ability to do elemental damage, so don’t put a lot of time or currency into anything elemental.


Grab Leap Slam at level 10. It’s useful for clearing gaps.
At level 20, consider Melee Physical Damage (Level 18), faster attacks (Level 18) for shield charge. Get culling strike or close combat (18) for your ancestral totem/riposte/reckoning.




Flesh and Stone is also available (16) but I find that it cuts into the mana supply this early in the game. If you are doing good on mana, remember to link maim to flesh and stone and it will provide a great boost to your damage.


Blood rage (16) is really good, despite the life drain. I put mine on left click and it just casts when I walk. It grants a nice speed and leech boost. It speeds things up greatly when leveling.

At level 17, Pick up an "Aurumvorax" sword. It's cheap because no one wants it. Playing solo self found, I sometimes get one from Einhar's beasts in the menagerie. You can ride this sword through the acts if you want.

Act II Bandits


At level 24, drop War Banner for Dread Banner
At level 28, drop Ancestral protector for Ancestral Warchief. Get the Vaal version if possible.


Impale Support – level 31. Pulverise is also an excellent alternative that grants good AOE. It pairs well with Blood rage if you’re using that.

In recent runs, I have been using blood magic support on shield charge starting at level 31. You can run Pride, Dread Banner, Flesh and stone, and blood and sand with this setup without thinking about mana. Replace with -mana cost equipment later on (Though I've gone to level 90 on this setup).


At level 38, pick up Brutality. It adds a lot of damage to shield charge.




At level 38, I recommend a curse on hit setup of Reckoning>Curse on hit>Punishment.


If you are doing a cast when damage taken setup, Get CWDT support (1)>Tempest Shield (7)>Punishment(5)>Immortal Call/molten shell (3). I personally like to hard cast my guard skills, so Molten shell is a great option to grab at this time if you’re into that. I drop it later once I'm into maps.


As you approach level 66, you will gain access to the -mana cost crafts for your jewelry. Look for reputable crafters in the POE forums who will add this for you for free.

Once you have -mana cost to non-channelled skils, your mana should barely move when you use shield charge. It’s safe to use the pride aura (24) at this point.


Once you find yourself with extra slots, consider vaal haste. Use can use it for a quick speed boost and it just melts bosses. DON'T RESERVE THE HASTE AURA.

Leveling Gear



Use any Armour/Evasion/Armour-evasion shield until level 20. Then, get The Deep One's Hide.


Grab a belt of the deceiver starting at level 20. It's good enough to get you though 10 acts.


At level 30, get Titucius' Span. Ride that shield until level 51.

At level 34ish, you should be finishing up act 3. Time to ascend. This is when things get fun. You'll be taking Arena challenger and getting big speed.

Once you're ascended, take a minute to get new gear. Here is my crappy gear from day 1 of Harvest.



At level 33, get the Deidbellow. It may cost like 10c early league, but you can buy the dying cry prophecy and start using it in act 3. It is incredible and could be an end game helm if it just had life on it. If you can't afford that, look for The Gull helmet.

If mana starts being an issue, there are mana great uniques you can buy for super cheap.



At level 46, 4 linking a Belly of the Beast will get you up to level 62 when you can pick up a 5L Carcass Jack. We choose Carcass Jack over Bronn's Lithe because Bronn’s has a high dexterity cost and doesn’t give the precious area of effect we need to clear packs effectively. The lack of life and resists on Bronn's doesn’t do it any favors either.

At level 51, buy a rare Girded Tower Shield with the highest armour you can afford. If it is league start, you may have to make your own. Remember you can craft armour and increased armour on your shields. This is the best base for your level.



At level 70, buy a Vix Lunaris shield for 1c and a Invictus Solaris shield for 1c. Sell to a vendor with an orb of fusing to make the Magna Eclipses. Use this shield until you can make or buy a shield that has over 2k armour. Ultimately, your final shield will always be a Colossal Tower Shield with an item level of 86+.

After speaking with many new players, a common mistake is to assume unique shields are the best. any rare shield over 2000 armour is stronger than all unique shields. Don't be fooled - uniques aren't the best shield for you in the end.


Leveling tips

Here are your major priorities once you start mapping:

1) If you're new, see this guide to how to do your atlas for maximum efficiency
2) Get max elemental resists and 4k life as soon as possible. Time to buy new gear!
3) Buy 14+ quality versions of all the gems that you can, starting with the ones linked to shield charge. The best time to do this is right after you upgrade your shield so you don't notice the initial dps drop from leveling a gem from level 1.
4) Go to Global chat room 820 and look for trials so you can do the Eternal Labyrinth (Aka uber lab)
5) Buy a cheap 6 link body armour. My favorite thing to do is get a corrupt one with lots of red links and low enough int and dex that I can wear it.
6) Work toward getting 92 int for a Carcass Jack
7) Work toward getting rings and an amulet with non-channelling skills have -9 total mana cost. Once you get these, you should easily be able to reserve 90% of your mana and sustain your attacks.
8) Follow the shield guide here to build yourself a good one so you can keep your dps high.
9) Boots with movement speed, life on all of your rares, and keeping your resists max while inching your chaos resists up. Use those jewel sockets to fill the gaps.
10) Remember that you can respec and that you don't have to follow the tree exactly. If you need mana leech, go path to it. If you need int, take it! Just respec later when you can find better gear.

See below for specific gearing growth recommendations.

Helmet
Weapon
Shield
Body Armour
Gloves
Boots
Jewelry
Belt
Jewels
Cluster Jewels
Flasks

Poe is being weird - see my character Biff_Shieldington for my old Delirium items.


The shock on focus is totally unnecessary. I used it for shaper runs, but for mapping I go for another craft.

Soul of Lunaris and Shakari for clearing, Soul of Solaris and Ryslatha for big bosses like shaper.

I am not God's gift to POE – I am 100% sure someone reading this guide could improve on this build. That’s what’s so exciting about it – it’s pretty uncharted territory here. Ideas I’ve had to add more dps are:

•Adding aspect of the spider by using -reserved mana shenanigans or affording Aul’s uprising’s for free pride.
•Dual curses – adding Poacher's mark.
•Crafting a weapon that is better than Prismatic Eclipse. Frankly, I don’t know enough about local and global mods to know what to do here.
•Using focus to apply shocks that last 12 seconds thanks to the “increased duration of ailments while focused” mod on helmets. EDIT: I totally did try the build with focus and it works excellently.
•There is nothing that says we HAVE to use brutality. If you slot Conc effect or pulverize instead, you could take advantage of any gear that gains elemental or chaos damage as a % of your physical damage. Atziri’s promise and taste of hate become excellent under these conditions.
•Making a Champion version of this build to take advantage of impale benefits or an Assassin to get free shield charge.