[3.25 READY] Versatile Combatant Impale Shield Crush - Crush the Atlas - SSF Compatible

did the war cry support ?

Running this, fully ascended now with 4l I think my dps is around quarter mill currently. DPS is not an issue, clear is good and survivability is excellent.

Going a pretty similar build, I use lifetap on 6L shield crush & 3L shield charge with advancing fortress for fortify, very high quality of life & utility with this, made the game so much smoother.

When I was leveling through the campaign I used vitality & stone golem to sustain life, but didn't need them by act 10.

I still have 4L SST to clear, shield crush fell off heavily during the campaign so never used it until late game. Have it on a tabula right now but the bossing damage is very high thanks to multi-strike, you just have to shield charge close to them which is fine since i'm max block. But honestly I don't need SST anymore, my shield charge damage is very good with life tap, faster attacks, fortify, bleed explosions all packs get obliterated with 2 shield charges.

I only have the base speed added on movement flask & 25% movement boots to buff my shield charge but still, i'm clearing most maps in 2 to 3 mins thanks to shield charge.



Only tried the new orbs once, curious to know if they can improve the movement flask even more.

I'm not mapping yet, but I have the 5L setup from your build and all of the auras + totems, and just slotting Shield Charge where you have shield crush almost doubles my effective damage. Not sure shield crush is worth it.

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AdioGG escreveu:

I'm not mapping yet, but I have the 5L setup from your build and all of the auras + totems, and just slotting Shield Charge where you have shield crush almost doubles my effective damage. Not sure shield crush is worth it.

Unless I am mistaken, the shield charge is just used as a placeholder in PoB. The build intends to use Shield Crush as a main skill in its 6L chest.

OP, can you confirm this understanding?

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dareqw33 escreveu:

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AdioGG escreveu:

I'm not mapping yet, but I have the 5L setup from your build and all of the auras + totems, and just slotting Shield Charge where you have shield crush almost doubles my effective damage. Not sure shield crush is worth it.

Unless I am mistaken, the shield charge is just used as a placeholder in PoB. The build intends to use Shield Crush as a main skill in its 6L chest.

OP, can you confirm this understanding?

This is correct. Shield Charge as a level 1 skill is used in the PoB and there is a jewel called 'Shield Crush Changes' in the Stygian Vise that simulates the damage of a 20/0 Shield Crush as best as possible.

Once we get an update to PoB, I plan on updating the current PoB and the guide with the research/findings I have found so far.

I realize you were speaking to OP but I wanted to clarify that I wasn't talking about the damage chart in PoB, I'm aware that Shield Crush isn't available in the damage calculations there yet.

When I was talking about my damage, I meant my experience in the game was that my damage and ability to clear zones nearly doubled when I swapped out Shield Crush for Shield Charge, given the exact same support gem setup on a 5L.

I haven't yet optimized my gear for attack speed scaling, nor leveled my gems to max, but I imagine that wouldn't change too much about the effectiveness gap between the two skills.

With the recent buffs to Shield Charge and its damage ramp on distance, it just seems like the better main skill for any shield-based builds. Damage is higher, speed of the ability is faster and it has movement utility, and the AOE spread is about the same size. I can't see yet why anyone would prefer Shield Crush.

Obviously I'll hold out til the PoB updates, but from what I'm seeing I won't be surprised if Shield Crush is somewhat underwhelming. Happy to hear thoughts from OP though.

Thats interesting but i guess if the theory is that shield charge and shield crush got the same damge even if shield charge is a bit higher, shield crush can double damage with the overlap, so needs more test, but i would be surprise if shield charge does more damage, not like GGG never fuck up but this would be kinda huge as a fail

Shield charge has received a very big damage buff. I progressed further in the atlas and my shield charge has become far more powerful, I considered dropping advancing fortress & giving shield charge its own 4L on my helmet or even investing a lot of my savings into a great 5L gloves for it. I dropped SST completely, its nice being able to hit targets from a far & everything but I use shield charge & shield crush to kill tougher rares etc. It has far more damage than shield charge because of the shotgun, and its just easier to hold an attack to burst things down than press in a small area countless times when you conditioned yourself to click towards long distances with shield charge.

As for whether GGG intended for shield charge to be so good at damage or purely a movement skill, they've been shilling defense tanky builds for leagues now instead of faster higher damage ones. Besides raider though gladiator does have great movement speed in its ascend, so attack speed is all you need. I suspect the number one guy on SSFHC has a very similar set up to me & only uses shield crush to quickly clear tougher enemies while tactically shield charging around the map.

[Edit] ok I checked his character since I was curious and i'm actually freaked out now, except for his gloves & flask his whole set up is very similar to mine. https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/bigdummydan125/characters

My gloves:

All this discussion here on other ways to do things is super beneficial, thanks everyone for the input!

Taking a look at the top ladder on HCSSF, it does look like there can be adjustments made in order to do a form of emulation for the build. I'm not sure currently if corrupted blood counts as bleeding, but I actually don't think it matters too much because of the 50% chance to bleed we get from the glad ascendancy. This different type of bleed through Corrupted Blood is something that I want to test, but I simply don't have the regrets at the moment to respec.

It really sucks that we STILL don't have PoB updated yet, but once the update comes through I have full plans on digging into these variants to see what's more efficient.

I've also taken a look at the Lowlife version that's been theorycrafted, and although its a different version compared to mine, the damage is only higher when bossing due to having the totems doing damage as well (since the increased damage also affects the totems, which is where the boost comes from. I was already aware of this going in). Even without the anoint at the moment, I can barely feel the damage difference when bossing at this state.