My first build (Mace PD+Shields) Feedback needed!

Hello there, this is my first build (I had another idea but have since trashed it).

As the title says, it's all about shields and maces, with a focus on physical damage. I will be using Infernal Blow as one of my primary skills linked with things like Melee Splash and Increased Fire Damage. I will also be using a few defensive skills like Molten Shell and Discipline. Shield block chance is tertiary here, as I'm mainly after the other stats shield's can give.

This build gives me a good amount of freedom on what to wear in terms of armor, which I greatly appreciate.

It's going to require a little bit of respec-ing, but here is where I will be currently at level 45:


...and at level 65-70 ish:


Completed build (115 pts):


Important Stats


Feedback is much appreciated! I'm not even sure how viable this is (as I'm relatively new).

24% life is a BIG red flag. Even in softcore you need a LOT more life than that. Path of exile is not the kind of game where you can focus on damage and faceroll content. In hardcore players generally try to get about 140% life in a build, in softcore you can afford to drop a little, maybe 120% is acceptable.

If your goal is to stack armor and get really high physical mitigation, you should also be looking at gaining more maximum endurance charges from the skill tree and keeping them up at all times. Each endurance charge gives you a flat 4% less physical damage taken, so combined with high amounts of armor and molten shell you become almost immune to physical damage.

Discipline is an extremely weak aura in a build like this because it gives you an okay flat amount of energy shield. You have close to zero % increased energy shield in the skill tree so discipline will only be giving you around 90 or so energy shield, which will not regenerate in combat since you don't have the ghost reaver or zealot's oath keystones, and energy shield only regenerates after 6 seconds of not taking damage.

Personally I would recommend something along these lines


You get a lot more life and maximum endurance charges which will make you feel like an unkillable god. Infernal blow really doesn't need that much damage from the skill tree, since a large portion of your damage is based on the max health of the enemy you kill rather than any of your own damage scaling.

There are a few differences to take note of in the pathing around the skill tree.
Firstly, in your build you tend to navigate to a wheel you want, then take every single node in that wheel. Most of the time this is not efficient. A large portion of the time when navigating around the skill tree you want to find notables (bigger nodes) and keystones (the biggest nodes) then travel to them using as few points as possible, basically forming a chain between them. Some simple math can tell you that this is quite often more efficient than picking up all the little fluff nodes near each notable.
Secondly a huge number of points you spent were on +10 strength and +10 intellect nodes. These nodes are almost always significantly less efficient than picking up a notable or any other nodes in the skill tree. Ideally you want to path around such that you take the smallest number of +10 stat nodes possible, unless you really need that stat to equip better gear or level up your gems.

Instead of discipline I would consider running herald of ash, which adds some of your physical damage as extra fire damage. It's basically a flat 15% damage boost for a physical skill. Once you get a reduced mana gem you can also run hatred, which is similar but adds your physical attack damage as extra cold damage. You may also consider running determination, for even more armor.

I should also note that "global defenses" refers only to the energy shield, armor, and evasion rating from that item. It does NOT affect the life, resistances, or other assorted rolls that may be on an item.

I've never personally played an infernal blow character, so I don't know the best gem links to run with it other than melee splash and multistrike. I wouldn't recommend something like increased burning damage or fire penetration because in your skill tree you are focused only on getting physical damage, which will not increase the fire damage of the explosion at all, so using gem links to scale fire damage while using the skill tree to scale physical damage is counter productive.

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm tearing up your hopes and dreams with this build. Really all you need to focus on is getting more defenses and life, making sure all your nodes in the skill tree are highly efficient nodes rather than fluff, and making sure you use the best skill gems and auras that compliment your points spent in the skill tree. Good luck with the build!

Thanks for the thorough reply, that's exactly what I needed!

I wanted to do armor/energy shield, and was planning on running Saffel's Frame along with assorted ringmails. Maybe the Incandescent Heart as it helps with life and regen (although light radius being based on ES is a little annoying).

Aside from that though, your advice seems pretty solid, so I'm going to go with pretty much all of it.