[3.19] Shield Crush Build | Crush all Uber Bosses | Crush the Atlas | Crush all content | Tanky


Introduction
This build guide is more a showcase of how hard you can push Shield Crush with the new reworked Emperor's Vigilance than it is a real guide, as I have only fleshed out the basics of the build and I mainly use this build for bossing. I've personally done all 7 Ubers (Uber Eater, Uber Exarch, Uber Shaper, Uber Cortex, Uber Maven, Uber Sirus) for the Almighty Clash challenge this league using this build. I can kill all other bosses, do all the invitations, and 99% of the content in the game. The only thing I have struggled with is Simulacrum Wave 25+.

TODO
1. Add more videos


Pros / Cons
Pros:
+ High DPS (200m+ peak DPS)
+ TANKY (75/75 block, 100% spell suppression, 100% elemental ailment avoidance)
+ Face tank most things (I've survived many slams from bosses and Uber sirus die beams, only things we really die to are DoTs and degens)
+ Uber boss killer / farmer
+ OK Mapper (take out Concentrated Effect for something else i.e. Awk/Increased AoE, Increased Crit Dmg, Energy Leech, Power Charge on Crit, or even Item Rarity and go MF culling / Vision farming)
+ Cheap to get started
+ Melee


Cons:
- Can't do no leech maps, reduced block and reduced crit dmg can be annoying as well
- Totem uptime efficiency can be annoying
- Movement speed is slow without enough attack speed for Leap Slam
- Expensive to min-max (I'm roughly 250+ divs into the build)
- Melee


Skill Mechanics
Shield Crush is unique in the way where it scales off of the stats given by our shield rather than our weapon. As a result, we want to scale the level of our Shield Crush gem to as high as we can.

Getting Shield Crush to Lvl 24 is ideal since it takes our base damage from 217-326 to 234-351 and takes our added phys damage per 15 armour/evasion from 5-7 to 6-8.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Shield_Crush

We can reach Lvl 24 by corrupting our Shield Crush to hit Lvl 21. We get +2 on top of that from our chest piece and a +1 from our amulet (more details in gear breakdown).

In order to maximize our DPS, we have to hit the enemy in the "sweet spot" of Shield Crush.



The green and red arcs indicates the AoE of Shield Crush when you're attacking. Where you want to hit, to maximize DPS, is where the two arcs intersect marked by the yellow lines. This allows our damage to "shotgun" because the enemy is getting hit by two waves.

Hitting in the "sweet spot" is only really necessary for large rares or bosses. The singular waves should be enough to easily run over trash.

Offensive Mechanics
Enduring Cry is used to sustain our Brutal Charges from Arn's Anguish.

I'm still testing out Anomalous Blood Rage as a way to sustain Frenzy Charges during boss fights. A bootleg solution would just be using Frenzy at the beginning.

When using Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief, be sure to put the totems away from the boss so that they don't die or your DPS will tank hard and you will have to keep recasting. But, don't put them too far as to not take advantage of Maim Support. They're just there to give you the buffs. I usually just put the totems behind me.

Planting our Dread Banner for boss fights is key to maximize DPS.

Defensive Mechanics
The main defense we utilize is Block. With a decent Spell Block roll on our Emperor's Vigilance, we can easily reach 75/40 Block. In the current iteration of my build, I'm running Versatile Combatant (50/50 Block) because I much prefer the extra 10% Spell Block for bosses.

This build also has 100% Spell Suppression. However, the more budget-friendly version of this build needs a Quartz Flask for the last 10% to be capped. I'm sure you can find the last 10% on a piece of gear as a Quartz Flask is a very bootleg way of getting 100% Spell Suppression. Once we get our hands on a Skin of the Lords with a Magebane Keystone, we can easily reach 100% Spell Suppression allowing us to even spec out of some Spell Suppression nodes in our tree in favor of more DPS or Life.

This build is primarily armour based so we make use of Determination aura and CWDT + Vaal/Molten Shell. A Granite Flask or Basalt Flask can push our armour even higher. I am currently sitting at 50k+ armour.

Elemental Resistances are currently sitting at 76/75/75. I don't run any Chaos Resistance on the build aside from the little you get from the Pantheon. I primarily use the build for bossing and Chaos Resistance is not needed. I'm sure if you really want Chaos Resistance, you can easily grab some on gear.

DoT/Degens are where a Block based build can fall over. We try our best to mitigate some of the Dot/Degens by getting some Life Regeneration from the tree and using Enduring Cry + Call to Arms Keystone.

100% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments can be acquired through an Eater of Worlds implicit on our boots + a good regular roll if we don't go with the Tailwind boots route.

Stun immunity can be reached by just grabbing the Unwavering Stance Keystone.

Gear Breakdown
Weapon

The weapon slot is just for a stat stick since the pDPS of the weapon does not affect Shield Crush DPS.

Budget Option:
Prismatic Eclipse with 3G sockets or 2G1B if you need mana leech.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Prismatic_Eclipse

Endgame Option:

How to Craft:
1) Get a Fractured Apex Rapier or Harpy Rapier with Global Critical Strike Multiplier Fracture
2) Use Deafening Essence of Dread to hit Increased Impale Effect
3) With an open suffix after Essence crafting, bench craft Chance to Deal Double Damage

Shield


The newly reworked Emperor's Vigilance makes it the perfect shield for Divergent Shield Crush. It beats out any Armour/ES shield that can be crafted. We want this shield because Shield Crush damage, in general, scales off of the Armour and/or Evasion values of your shield. The added ES boosts our DPS even more since Divergent Shield Crush gains Critical Strike Multiplier per 100 ES.

A low-rolled shield can easily get through most content. Upgrading this slot would just require looking for better Armour/ES rolls on the shield.

Helmet

Budget Option:
Rare Helmet with Life, Resists, and anything else needed or Rare Elder Influenced Helmet with "Nearby Enemies Take X% Increased Physical Damage"

This is a good option if you do not like the Increased Physical Damage Taken that comes with Abyssus.

Endgame Option:

I personally prefer Abyssus as my go to Helmet for Melee builds. It is a very large DPS Boost at the cost of Physical Defence. You want as high of a Melee Critical Strike Multiplier as you can get and as low of a Increased Physical Damage Taken roll as you can.

Helmet Enchant:
Largest DPS boost for the Helmet Enchant is Ancestral Protector Totem grants 18% increased Attack Speed while Active.

However, I prefer Increased Shield Crush Attack Speed since it just "feels" better.

I use this build mainly for boss killing. So, if I feel like pushing my character as far as I can, I'd probably try and get the Ancestral Protector enchant on my Abyssus.

Body Armour

Gem levels are very important for scaling the DPS of Shield Crush.

Budget Option:
Any 6L Body Armour to just get the build up an running should be fine. If you can afford to sacrifice defenses on the Body Armour slot, a Tabula Rasa with a +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems corrupt (since Shield Crush has an AoE tag) is a nice little DPS boost to Shield Crush.

Endgame Option:
Warlord Influenced Body Armour with +1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems and +1 to Level of Socketed Strength Gems

How to Craft:
1) Turn in 6 "The Celestial Justicar" divination cards for a 6L Astral Plate. If you already have a 6L Body Armour of choice, you can skip this step. MAKE SURE BODY ARMOUR IS AT LEAST ilvl 80.
2) Slam Warlord's Exalted Orb onto Body Armour. If you already have a Warlord Influenced Body Armour base, you can skip to the next step.
3) Use a Powerful Chaotic Resonator with Faceted Fossil, Pristine Fossil, and Dense fossil until you land +1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems and +1 to Level of Socketed Strength Gems.
4) Craft either flat Maximum Life or % Maximum Life to round out the Body Armour piece.



I personally use a Skin of The Lords to get an EZ +2 to Gems. A Magebane notable is also very useful if you need a way to get more Spell Supression. If you cannot find a Skin with the right colors and Magebane, a Skin with Versatile Combatant is also a nice alternative so long as you can find Spell Supression on other pieces of gear.

Gloves

Budget Option:
Any Rare Gloves with Life and Resist to round out your character.
Spiked Gloves, Gauche Gloves, Southswing Gloves, or Sinistal Gloves are a nice base to have because the implicit increases our DPS with Shield Crush.

Endgame Option:
Non-Influenced Rare with Life, Attack Speed, and anything else that is needed to round out your character. We cannot get Eldritch Implicits on Influenced items.



We want to get a Chance to Impale Eater of Worlds Implicit on our gloves so that we can afford to drop Impale Support. More details on this in the Gems section. Searing Exarch implicit can be anything you need (i.e. Attack Speed, Crit Chance, etc). I personally run Attack Speed. Since I had an open prefix, I also crafted Increased Damage While Leeching for more DPS in our Gloves slot.

Glove Enchantment:
Anything you want really. I personally run Commandment of Reflection because it is like I have a bootleg Saviour.

Boots

Budget Option:
Rare boots with Life, Resists, and Movement Speed. A 30% Movement Speed roll is preferred. If you cannot boots with the desired Movement Speed roll, you can always craft Movement Speed yourself if the boots have an open Prefix.

Endgame Option:
Hunter Influenced Rare boots with Life, Resists, and Tailwind


Onslaught is not necessary on the boots since we cannot proc it on bosses unless there's an add phase. However, it is a nice QoL for mapping and allows us to drop a Silver Flask for something else. I run a Silver Flask in order to get Onslaught on bosses though.

Boots Enchant:
16% Increased Attack Speed and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently

Amulet

Budget Option:
Carnage Heart

Very cheap and gives a lot of what we need (Attributes, Elemental Resistances, Increased Damage).

Endgame Option:
Rare Amulet with +1 to Level of all Physical Skill Gems, Critical Strike Multiplier, Critical Strike Chance, and Life.



Ashes is a very nice upgrade if you can afford it and are looking for a replacement for the Endgame Rare Amulet. We want a 30% to Quality of all Skill Gems roll. The Reservation Efficiency roll really depends on how your mana is since we have a lot of auras to fit in.

Anoint:
You are probably going to have to PoB this because there are a lot of options. Panopticon is a large DPS boost if you cannot find a way to get it with Skill Points (I solve this with a Thread of Hope, more details in Jewels section). If you are having trouble with Reservation, Sovereignty is also a great anoint. If you have none of the issues stated above, you can opt to anoint Influence or Tenacity.

Rings

Budget Option:
Rare Rings with Life, Resists, and Attributes if needed

Endgame Option:
Warlord Influenced Rare Ring with Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit


We want to try and leave a Prefix open on at least one of our rings. This allows us to craft Non-Channeling Skills have -X to Total Mana Cost because the build is pretty tight on mana.


Belt

Budget Option:
Rare Belt with Life and Resists

Endgame Option:
Arn's Anguish


A regular Arn's Anguish will suffice but, if we are looking for more damage, one with Pride has 20% Increased Aura Effect would be ideal.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Brutal_charge

Belt Enchant:
+300 to Armour while you have Fortify

Flasks

Budget Options:
Life Flask with Immunity to Bleeding and Immunity to Corrupted Blood
Diamond Flask
Silver Flask
Granite Flask
Quicksilver Flask with Immunity to Freeze and Chill

Endgame Options:


You can try rolling for X% chance to gain a Flask Charge when you deal a Critical Strike if you want a tad bit of Flask Sustain. Gain X charge(s) when you are hit by an enemy can also work here. I prefer just rolling DPS boosting mods on my flasks (i.e. Increased Effect, Increased Attack Speed, Increased Critical Strike Chance).

Jewels


Seething Fury is absolutely necessary for this build since we are going crit Shield Crush. The Corrupted Blood cannot be Inflicted on you corrupt is not really necessary but it adds a very nice QoL.

Budget Options:
Rare Jewels with % increased Maximum Life and any combination of Increased Attack Speed, Increased Attack Speed while holding a Shield, Increased Melee Damage, and/or Increased Attack Damage while holding a Shield

Endgame Options:

Impales you Inflict last 2 Additional Hits while using Pride

Later on, look for a double Pride Watcher's Eye that has both Impales you Inflict last 2 Additional Hits while using Pride and 25% chance to Impale Enemies on Hit with Attacks while using Pride. This allows us to drop Impale Support while still maintaining 100% chance to Impale. DO NOT DO THIS UNTIL YOU CAN REACH 100% CHANCE TO IMPALE FROM ELDRITCH IMPLICIT FROM GLOVES, DREAD BANNER, AND WATCHER'S EYE. MORE DETAILS IN GEMS SECTION.

Timeless Jewel: Lethal Pride
Get one with as many % chance to deal Double Damage nodes as you can afford / spec into. I would recommend at least 1 or 2. Other good nodes include % increased Maximum Life, % increased Melee Critical Strike Chance, % increased Melee Critical Strike Multiplier, and % increased Physical Damage.

We put Lethal Pride in the jewel socket to the left of the Marauder start.

Thread of Hope (Large Ring)
I put this in the jewel socket right under the Duelist start so that I can grab Panopticon and free up the amulet anoint for something else.

Forbidden Flesh/Flame
Allocates Inspirational if you have the matching modifier on Forbidden Flesh/Flame

This helps with capping out our chance to Impale while also providing a big boost to DPS. It also frees up some mana so that we can run Herald of Purity.

Large Cluster Jewel
Added Small Passives grant 10% Increased Attack Damage or Added Small Passives grant 12% Increased Attack Damage while holding a Shield

Feed the Fury
Fuel the Fight
Martial Prowess

Strike Leader is also a nice alternative for Fuel the Fight if you don't have any mana issues and/or are on a budget. If mana leech is necessary, our Thread of Hope allows us to grab Sprit Void on the Skill Tree.

Gems
Getting Lvl 21 gems or 23 Quality is based on how big your budget is. 20/20 gems will suffice. If anything is necessary, it is getting Shield Crush to Lvl 21.
Main 6L - Shield Crush

Budget Option:
5R1G

Divergent Shield Crush (21/20) -- You can get away with regular Shield Crush for a while but you should try to get Divergent ASAP since we are crit with this build

Multistrike Support (20/20)

Brutality Support (20/20)

Impale Support (20/20)

Melee Physical Damage Support (20/20)

Fortify Support (20/20) or Pulverize Support (20/20) if we have another way of getting Fortify (i.e. through masteries)

Endgame Option:
6R or 5R1B

Divergent Shield Crush (21/20) -- I have yet to find a Divergent Shield Crush (21/23) on trade but this is absolute min-max

Awakened Multistrike Support (5/23) or Divergent Multistrike Support (20/20) if Awakened Multistrike Support is too far out of your budget

Awakened Brutality Support (6/20)

Lifetap Support (21/20) or Concentrated Effect Support (21/20) if we are 5R1B and have no mana problems, provides a huge boost to our single target/bossing DPS

Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support (6/20)

Fortify Support (21/20)


Once we can get 100% chance to Impale from Watcher's Eye, Eldritch Implicit, and Dread Banner, we can drop Impale Support.

25% chance to Impale comes from Watcher's Eye and a maximum of 30% chance to Impale can come from the Eldritch Implicit on our gloves. An additional 20% chance to Impale comes from a Physical Mastery on the skill tree. This leaves us with 25% + 30% + 20% = 75% chance to Impale. A Dread Banner (20/20), with the Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras on the Skill Tree, will give us ~30% chance to Impale. This allows us to cap our Impale so that we can drop Impale Support from our 6L for a stronger Support Gem.

Inspirational from Forbidden Flame/Flesh jewels allows us to link Dread Banner to Arrogance (20/20) for an even greater Aura Effect/Impale chance. This allows us to tweak the Eater of Worlds implicit on our gloves to have just enough chance to Impale in order to reach 100% while allowing our Searing Exarch Implicit to be stronger via Orb of Conflicts.

4L #1 - Totems

Budget Option:
4R

Vaal Ancestral Warchief (20/X)

Multiple Totems Support (20/X)

Maim Support (20/X)

Ancestral Protector (20/X)

Endgame Option:
4R

Vaal Ancestral Warchief (20/X)

Multiple Totems Support (20/20) -- Totem placement speed feels nice to have, less time standing still dropping totems

Maim Support (20/X)

Phantasmal Ancestral Protector (20/20)

4L #2 - Auras

Budget Option:
3R1B

Herald of Purity (20/X)

Pride (20/X)

Determination (20/X)

Enlighten (3/X)

Endgame Option:
3R1B

Herald of Purity (20/X)

Divergent Pride (20/20)

Anomalous/Divergent Determination (20/20)

Enlighten (3/X) -- Enlighten (4/X) is not necessary unless you are really having troubles with Mana Reservation. At that point, it is cheaper to just get a Reservation anoint on Amulet.

4L #3 - Auras + Leap Slam

Budget Option:
3R1G

Dread Banner (20/20)

Arrogance Support (20/20)

Leap Slam (20/X)

Precision (20/X)

Endgame Option:
3R1G

Dread Banner (20/20)

Phantasmal Leap Slam (20/20)

Arrogance Support (21/20)

Divergent/Anomalous Precision (20/20) -- Divergent if you want more DPS, Anomalous if you want more Unreserved Life

3L #1 - Enduring Cry + Blood Rage

Budget Option:
1R2G

Enduring Cry (20/X)

Enhance Support (3/X)

Blood Rage (20/20)

Endgame Option:
1R2G

Enduring Cry (20/20)

Enhance Support (4/X) or Awakened Enhance Support if you can afford it

Anomalous Blood Rage (20/20) -- I am still testing this as a somewhat reliable way of getting Frenzy Charges during boss fights. With Anomalous Blood Rage (20/20) + Enhance (4/X) + Ashes of the Stars 30% Quality, there is 7% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Hit a Unique Enemy. Having Awakened Enhance Support (5/X) puts it up to 8%. However, Awakened Enhance is very expensive. Finding space to socket in Frenzy can also help with Frenzy Charge generation during bosses. You can also swap Ralakesh's Impatience before bosses to grant max Frenzy Charges and Brutal/Endurance Charges but, that's honestly too much of a hassle. This build definitely does enough damage without the Frenzy Charges during bosses but if you really want them, you're probably better off getting a 10% Frenzy Charge on Hit mod on your chest.

3L #2 - CWDT + Blood and Sand

You can adjust the Gem Levels of Molten Shell / Vaal Molten Shell and Cast when Damage Taken Support as you see fit.

Budget Option:
3R

Molten Shell / Vaal Molten Shell (14/X)

Cast when Damage Taken Support (8/X)

Blood and Sand (5/X)

Endgame Option:
3R

Molten Shell / Vaal Molten Shell (14/20)

Anomalous Cast when Damage Taken Support (8/20)

Blood and Sand (6/X)


Passive Skill Trees
Budget Tree: http://poeurl.com/dOnb
Midgame Tree: http://poeurl.com/dOna
Endgame Tree: http://poeurl.com/dOm9

Bandits
Kill all for +2 Passive Skill Points

Pantheon
Major:
Soul of Arakaali or Soul of Solaris

Minor:
Soul of Shakari or Soul of Ryslatha

Arakaali and Shakari are nice since the shortcomings of Block-based builds are DoT damage. Solaris and Ryslatha are mainly for bossing.

Ascendancy
Brutal Fervor -> Bane of Legends -> Headsman/Impact -> Headsman/Impact

Videos
Build Highlights: https://youtu.be/vs-RW-6kdEI


Melee in 2022
Melee isn't dead



Viable in 3.20 if Chris and GGG don't touch anything
Last edited by Sensatiional on Nov 11, 2022, 4:42:20 AM
Last bumped on Nov 16, 2023, 10:21:37 PM
.
.
.
This build looks sick, might have to try this out.
.
Awesome, thanks Mate 😁
Player deadeye TS Barrage before, but it Was so stressful... 1 Hit your dead.

With your build i did with lvl 85 T16 maps.
I build the passive tree slighlty Different.
And because of that, comes my question:
Youre super tanky and i die very Rarely, even without the passive Route to spell supression.

Did you just picked it because of the Keystone to push the Dmg?
Because i have 75% spellblock and dont feel like im squishy at all.

I know the Keystone spell sup = crit, gives a huge Bonus. Is it just because of that?

But its a lot of points to get there.
So if its because of the dmg, couldnt we use for example a large Cluster + 2 Medium to acieve the Same result?
Greetings
Last edited by FapLove on Nov 13, 2022, 11:28:18 AM
"
FapLove wrote:
Awesome, thanks Mate 😁
Player deadeye TS Barrage before, but it Was so stressful... 1 Hit your dead.

With your build i did with lvl 85 T16 maps.
I build the passive tree slighlty Different.
And because of that, comes my question:
Youre super tanky and i die very Rarely, even without the passive Route to spell supression.

Did you just picked it because of the Keystone to push the Dmg?
Because i have 75% spellblock and dont feel like im squishy at all.

I know the Keystone spell sup = crit, gives a huge Bonus. Is it just because of that?

But its a lot of points to get there.
So if its because of the dmg, couldnt we use for example a large Cluster + 2 Medium to acieve the Same result?
Greetings


Hi Mate, glad you're enjoying the build!

I capped my spell suppression because I only had like mid 30s spell block because the roll on my shield is trash. If you're going the 75/75 block route, the spell suppression is mainly there for getting us crit capped thanks to one of the spell suppression masteries. It still helps with our survivability since most boss attacks are spells.

I think the keystone you're talking about is Magebane. Only way I got it was thought a skin of the lords with Magebane as a mod
Last edited by Sensatiional on Nov 13, 2022, 3:28:30 PM
Nice Build!

This will be viable for the 3.20?
"
masterrafazz wrote:
Nice Build!

This will be viable for the 3.20?


Author has been banned on forum - don't know, for what - but I had dialogue with author on youtube, and he said - yep.
He will update pob in the nearest time.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info