[3.4] Murdrey's "The Shatterer" - Sunder Juggernaut (Crit Based) Updated

Not updated for 3.5, changes made to Dual wielding in regard to Melee skills means there are no main-hand only attacks resulting in alternating between weapons each attack.


Introduction
“The Shatterer” is an overall strong build that can clear all content the game had to offer up to 3.4. By shattering frozen enemies to create chain reactions of cold explosions it offers good clear speed all the while going head to head against some of the hardest bosses in the game.

It was my league starter in Delve though I did end up starting about 1½ month into the league. With just a few hundred chaos orbs this build can reach 1.5m DPS against bosses like Shaper and Elder. But if you expand your budget you can reach over 2.5m DPS against bosses.

Table of Contents
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1. -Build Mechanics & Synergy
2. -Passive Tree
3. -Leveling
4. -Gear Breakdown
5. -Gems and Links
6. -Enchants
7. -Pantheon/Bandits/Ascendancy
8. -Path of Building Link

Pros
- Fast clear speed.
- Strong boss killer.
- Good scaling.
- Budget friendly.
- Solid league starter.
- Ranged.
- Beginner friendly.


Cons
- Vulnerable against Physical Damage without proper Flask management.
- Cannot do any Reflect maps.
- Must use Ralakesh’s Impatience against harder bosses to generate charges before beginning the fight.
- Not the tankiest Juggernaut build available.


1. Build mechanics & Synergy

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This build is based around stacking critical strike chance in order to shatter frozen enemies but also freezing them to prevent them from dealing any damage to you. I tried to focus the build around physical damage over elemental damage despite elemental damage having the option to scale much higher than physical damage at the time of writing this guide. The reason being that most bosses have high elemental resistances so even if you stack elemental penetration, you’ll still end up losing around 50% of your damage against bosses. Physical Damage with the itemization I’ve done is also a lot cheaper than most of the other builds available.

There’s a couple of Auras/Skills/Items that make this build possible.

Items

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Soultaker, this unique axe allows you to use attack skills even if you have no mana allowing us to reserve all our mana with Hatred, Herald of Purity and Herald of Ice. Because we reserve all our mana, we cannot activate spells, so spells like Summon Chaos-/Ice Golem and Blood Rage must be linked to Cast when Damage taken. It also allows us to chill with our physical damage which means that every time we hit a monster the physical damage will roll to check if you chilled the enemy or not, if not the cold damage will do the same roll resulting in permanently chilled monsters.

Abyssus, this unique helmet is insane for Physical Damage builds as it offers 50 physical damage to attacks which is huge when modifiers like Ruthless Support, Melee Physical Damage Support and Lion’s Roar kick in. The only drawback of using this item is the increased physical damage taken.

The Tactician, a unique belt that gives us a high amount of global physical damage, increased stun duration on enemies with Ruthless Support, a good chunk of resistance, 50% increased flask charges gained, and lastly it offers 2.61-3.09% Effective Critical Chance.

Prismatic Eclipse, this sword is a strong off-hand weapon with its global modifiers depending on the gem sockets. It also gives us global accuracy and block chance while dual wielding which adds to our defense.


Auras/Heralds/Skills

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Hatred, the number one aura to go for when you’re stacking physical damage. It gives you up to 36% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage allowing for a straight up damage boost.

Herald of Purity, straight up physical damage to attacks as well as summoning sentinels when killing an enemy. The nifty little minions can tank certain spells and block monsters from reaching you.

Sunder, our primary damage dealing ability. Slams the ground and creates a shockwave that damages enemies in its path. Enemies hit by Sunder will also release a circular shockwave dealing additional damage to nearby enemies. The reason for choosing sunder over other skills is primarily the synergy it has with Herald of Ice, each circular shockwave that enemies sends out when hit by Sunder can be a critical strike meaning even more frozen enemies. But also, Sunder is ranged attack skill which make a lot of bosses easier and its treated as melee skill by modifiers.

Herald of Ice grants us some cold damage to attacks. The most important thing about this Herald is that it causes enemies that are frozen to shatter when killed dealing cold damage in an area around the enemy. The damage its deal is not affected by spell modifiers but if it deals a critical strike that means all the enemies close to the target also gets frozen. This often turns into exploding chains of cold, if there’s a bunch of mobs lined up it can clear 1-3 screens away.

2. Passive Tree


3. Leveling (Passive points gained from quests not included below level 85)


4. Gear breakdown
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1. Weapons

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Main hand:
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1. Soul taker with max AS and high pDPS.

2. Soul taker.

3. Rare axe with high pDPS, crit chance and attack rate. Cannot use both Herald of Purity/Ice. Turn off one, Purity is better on bosses, Ice is better for map clearing.

Off-hand
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1. Prismatic Eclipse, 3 green sockets for maximum AS. Option 2 does offer more DPS but reduced attack speed meaning you’ll be stuck in Multistrike for longer so dodging abilities requires faster reaction time.

2. Death’s Hand, roll doesn’t matter since it’s all local. Death’s hand is by far the best off-hand until you can get a Shaper Diamond/Steel Ring with Assassin’s Mark lvl 8/12. This weapon provides reliable Power charges through our Ruthless Support as well as permanent Unholy Might which gives a nice boost to our Chaos Damage as well as increased life leech through Atziri’s Promise.

3. The Princess, 30% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage is what you’re looking for here. This the super budget option.

2. Armor
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Body armor:
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1. Rare Elder Astral Plate. Rolls to look for in order; +120 maximum life, % increased maximum life, Level 1 maim support, crit chance, additional phys damage reduction, to strength/any resistance.

2. Loreweave. Can be used but it’s not something I would use personally. It is to be considered a highly offensive item meaning you will lose a lot of maximum life to survive the heavy physical hits you take. A bonus would be that it reduces elemental damage taken by quite a bit. You need the following rolls; high life, high global critical chance, attributes, physical damage and max resistance 80%.

Helmet:
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1. Abyssus. Give’s the build insane amounts of DPS with high physical damage to attacks. 40% increased dmg physical damage taken is what you want primarily. After that look for high Melee Critical Multiplier and lastly high attribute roll.

2. Rat’s Nest. A solid cheaper option to Abyssus but nowhere near Abyssus damage. I usually swap out Abyssus for Rat’s Nest when doing labs or other bosses with crazy physical damage output because you will get one shotted by Izaro even at 7k Health.

3. Starkonja’s Head. Provides more defense than Rat’s nest for slightly less DPS. Due to the miniscule DPS difference I would recommend this over Rat’s nest for newer players.
4. A rare helm with Maximum Life and Resistances before getting any of the helmets mentioned earlier.

Gloves:
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1. Rare Spiked Gloves if you have a body armor with Maim support (see 2nd option). Rolls you want is in order; High maximum life, Physical Damage to Attacks, Attack Speed, Strength, Accuracy. If you need more resistance you can get one or two of them here.

Amulet:
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1. Shaper Rare amulet because we need resistances. Rolls in order: Physical Damage to Attacks, Intelligence, Resistances, Maximum life, % of Physical Damage as Extra X Damage (Cold I best option followed by Chaos and lastly any other), Global Critical Strike Multiplier. Recommended base is an Agate Amulet for more Strength (accuracy and dmg) and Intelligence

Rings:
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1. Shaper Steel Ring with Curse Enemies with Level X Assassin’s Mark on Hit. Other rolls in order; Physical Damage to Attacks, Maximum Life, Resistances, Strength, Accuracy, Global Critical Strike Multiplier. Due to Shaper Steel Ring’s price I’d highly recommend a Diamond Ring base or possibly a Two-stone/1 resistance Ring.

2. Steel/Diamond Ring. Rolls in order; Physical Damage to Attacks, Maximum Life, Resistance, Global Critical Strike Multiplier, Accuracy, Strength, Intelligence (if needed).

Belts:
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1. The Tactician. You pretty much need to have 25% to all elemental resistances here. Other rolls to look for is 40% increased Global Physical Damage, 60% increased Critical Strike Chance, High Intelligence (to help with the int needed to gain the Critical Strike Chance), High Strength. High rolled ones can be very pricey, so the cheapest option is to buy high rolled The Magnate and The Great Mind of the North prophecy. This way you can ensure getting High Global Physical Damage as well as Strength + Resistance. Any outcome from the prophecy will be your best option until you can afford a better one. Corruption makes for an even stronger belt. Some good corruptions are % increased Maximum life, + to all elemental resistances, Hatred has % increased Aura effect, % to Critical Strike Multiplier During any Flask Effect, % increased Attack Speed during any Flask effect.

2. Stygian Vise. Stats to look for; Maximum life, % increased Global Physical Damage, Resistances.

3. Rustic Sash. You want high Maximum life and resistances.

3. Jewels
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Normal Jewels
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1. Watcher’s Eye with % to Critical Strike Chance while affected by Hatred and Adds # to # Cold Damage while affected by Hatred. Since these are very pricey, I’d never bother getting one unless you’re stocked on currency. A cheaper option would be getting one with Critical Strike chance only. If you can’t afford it throw in another rare one listed below.

2. Rare jewels. Rolls to look for is % increased Maximum Life, Attack Speed with Axes, % to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier. Maximum life is the most important to increase our somewhat low life. If these are too expensive you can look for cheaper alternatives through the count search option. Stats to search for is Attack Speed while Dual Wielding, Attack Speed with One handed Melee Weapons, Critical Strike Multiplier with One Handed Melee Weapons, Global Critical Strike Multiplier, or any of the % Increased Physical damage/Critical Strike Chance options out there. If you need more resistance this is the place to pick it up. Though jewels with 4 rolls usually are very pricey I’d recommend dropping Critical Strike Multiplier in favor of resistance.

Abyss Jewels (Stygian Vise only):
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Murderous Eye Jewel; Maximum life, physical damage to axe attacks, % increased attack speed if you’ve dealt a critical strike recently.

4. Flasks
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Lion’s Roar gives us % more physical damage which is great. A slight drawback of the flask is the Knockback effect which means you must move slightly forward when on bosses if they aren’t against a wall.

Atziri’s Promise is a nice flask for Chaos Resistance as well as more Leech and a good amount of extra Chaos Damage.

Divine Life Flask, I prefer a Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Staunching for high life recovery when you’ve taken a large hit as well as a few seconds of Bleed immunity. If you want a better panic button use a Seething Divine Life Flask for more instant recovery, remember that you now only remove Bleed rather than get immune to it.

Basalt Flask, high physical damage reduction which is needed since we use Abyssus. Shock or Curse immunity and either 23% reduced charges used or 20% chance to gain a charge when you deal a Critical Strike. The reduced charges used allows for 2 consecutive uses giving it a total uptime of 10.8 seconds. Personally, I prefer Surgeons affix because it allows me to gain charges on bosses during phases without adds.

Diamond Flask, this option provides a ton of DPS since we have above 80% Effective Critical Strike Chance. You want Curse or Shock immunity depending on what you have on your Basalt Flask. Other than that, +21% reduced charges used are nice to bring down the consumed charges to 15 rather than 20.

Taste of Haste, a strong offensive and defensive flask which reduces physical damage taken as well as providing about 150k DPS. It is however a lot pricier than the other flasks but can be used in end game. I recommend swapping your life flask for this.

5. Gem links:
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Leveling
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3 links; Sunder – Onslaught Support Melee Physical Damage Support

4 links; Sunder – Onslaught Support – Melee Physical Damage Support – Ruthless Support

5 links; Sunder – Melee Physical Damage Support – Ruthless Support – Maim – Multistrike Support/Added fire Damage

6 links: Sunder - Melee Physical Damage Support – Ruthless Support – Maim – Multistrike Support – Onslaught Support

Movement Skills
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You can use Leap Slam or Whirling Blades (requires Prismatic Eclipse). Whirling blades allows for faster dodging and it’s faster than Leap Slam. However, Leap Slam allows you to jump over gaps and cliffs which can otherwise prove to be rather annoying to get over.

Leap Slam (20/0) – Fortify Support (20/20) – Faster Attacks (20/20) - Increased Duration (20/20) /Culling Strike Support (20/20)

Whirling Blades (20/20) – Fortify Support (20/20) – Faster Attacks (20/20) – Increased Duration (20/20) /Culling Strike Support (20/20)

Mobility skills are best used in helmet for easy coloring.

Body armor
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5 links; Sunder – Ruthless Support – Multistrike Support – Melee Physical Damage Support – Maim Support

6 links; Sunder - Ruthless Support – Multistrike Support – Melee Physical Damage Support – Concentrated Effect Support – Increased Critical Strikes Support (Swap Critical Strike Support with Maim Support if you don't have Maim Support on body armor).

Note. You can use Increased Critical Damage Support instead of Critical Strikes Support for more DPS but it reduces your effective critical chance by ~14.87% which means you will Freeze less. In maps your DPS exceeds monster’s health by far so for mapping freezing enemies more often means more shatters thanks to Herald of Ice. On bosses Freeze is to be considered defensive since they are unable to use any actions while frozen but for faster kills use Increased Critical Damage Support.

Boots
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4 links; Cast when Damage Taken (1/0) – Cold Snap (7/20) – Blood Rage (7/20) - Summon Chaos Golem (3/20)

You can use Summon Ice Golem (3/20) instead of Chaos Golem if you’d like. This offers more DPS but leaves you more vulnerable to physical hits because of Abyssus.

Weapons
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Weapon 1

3 links; Cast when Damage Taken (20/0) – Increased Duration (20/20) – Immortal Call (20/0). This setup is completely optional depending on whether you want to sustain your endurance charges or sometimes deplete them. Personally, I use this setup to prevent two physical hits in a row to finish me off.
Weapon 2

Hatred (20/0) – Herald of Ice (20/20) – Portal (1/X)

The Portal gem is of course optional but due to the lack of anything else to use its my go to.

Gloves:
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3 links; Vaal Ancestral Warchief (20/20) – Hypothermia Support (20/20) – Increased Critical Strikes Support (20/20). Unlinked socket; Herald of Purity (20/20) (Purity must be unlinked because the mana multiplier of the other gems adds to the reserved mana meaning you cannot activate it otherwise)

Option 2: This option increases your up time of Freeze on bosses but requires you to drop Increased Duration (20/20) in Weapon 1.

4 links; Vaal Ancestral Warchief (20/20) - Hypothermia Support (20/20) – Increased Critical Strikes Support (20/20) - Faster Attacks (20/20)

6. Enchants
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Helmet: 40% increased Sunder Damage

Boots: 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you’ve killed recently.

Gloves: None

7. Pantheon/Bandit Choice/Ascendancy
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Pantheon
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Major:
1. Soul of Solaris, a solid option against single bosses with area damage. Also prevents multiple critical hits from killing you.

2. Soul of Lunaris can be good in certain situations since it prevents projectiles that have chained and gives chance to dodge attacks / spell if you have been hit recently.

Minor:
1. Soul of Ralakesh. My go to in order to prevent Blind as well as reducing damage taken from Bleeds.

2. Soul of Shakari. I only ever use this when I’m doing maps that contains monsters with a lot of poison.

3. Soul of Tukohama – This can be used to face tank certain bosses but requires you to respec out of Vaal Pact which often is too much hassle to be worth it.

Bandit choice
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Kill all is the best option, however early on helping Alira can be a very good option since it helps you reaching the resistance cap as well as giving some DPS through the Critical Strike Multiplier. (I always choose Alira when I’m on a budget and switch later to 2 passives)

Ascendancy
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Juggernaut: Undeniable – Unstoppable – Unflinching - Unyielding

8. Path of Building link
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https://pastebin.com/6XPcwiSD
Current gear at the time of writing this guide is shown in PoB

Last edited by Murdrey on Dec 5, 2018, 8:45:28 AM
Last bumped on Dec 4, 2018, 11:02:23 AM
Reserved for updates.

Edit 1 & 2: Clarified and removed misleading information.
Last edited by Murdrey on Nov 17, 2018, 2:55:15 AM
"
1. Rare Spiked Gloves if you have a body armor with Maim support (see 2nd option). Rolls you want is in order; High maximum life, Physical Damage to Attacks, Attack Speed, Strength, Accuracy. If you need more resistance you can get one or two of them here.

2. Tombfist. Maximum Attack Speed/Life needed. If only 1 abyssal socket use a Searching Abyss Jewel for maim support.


Not sure you understand how that works, or I don't get what you're going for...

Maim (what tombfist does with a searching eye jewel) - this is just a status effect on monsters, slowing them down. This does not provide any extra damage.

Maim support - maims monsters (see above) & provides more damage & maimed monsters take more damage

If you want serious extra damage from your tombfist, which is what 99% of people using these gloves want, you go for the "intimidate" part with a murderous eye jewel. If you have tombfists with 2 jewels, you may as well use a searching eye jewel as well, of course. Helps to secure the maim effect on monsters.

But this isn't really related to the links in your chest, or whether your chest has the "lvl 1 maim" affix or not.

---
3.5 build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2299519
Last edited by Peterlerock on Nov 17, 2018, 8:12:52 AM
"
"
1. Rare Spiked Gloves if you have a body armor with Maim support (see 2nd option). Rolls you want is in order; High maximum life, Physical Damage to Attacks, Attack Speed, Strength, Accuracy. If you need more resistance you can get one or two of them here.

2. Tombfist. Maximum Attack Speed/Life needed. If only 1 abyssal socket use a Searching Abyss Jewel for maim support.


Not sure you understand how that works, or I don't get what you're going for...

Maim (what tombfist does with a searching eye jewel) - this is just a status effect on monsters, slowing them down. This does not provide any extra damage.

Maim support - maims monsters (see above) & provides more damage & maimed monsters take more damage

If you want serious extra damage from your tombfist, which is what 99% of people using these gloves want, you go for the "intimidate" part with a murderous eye jewel. If you have tombfists with 2 jewels, you may as well use a searching eye jewel as well, of course. Helps to secure the maim effect on monsters.

But this isn't really related to the links in your chest, or whether your chest has the "lvl 1 maim" affix or not.


Thanks for the clarification. Updated the guide.
Currently awaiting 3.5 patch notes to see which changes the build might need.
Last edited by Murdrey on Dec 5, 2018, 8:42:32 AM

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