[3.6] Spectral Shield Throw - Elemental Conversion

Overview
Spectral shield Throw is one of the least used skill gems in path of exile and there are a lot of good reasons why, to name a few: It has terrible mechanics regarding how the Skill both works and scale. Awful base attack speed combined with it also being hard to scale properly. But with the new changes in [3.6]

"Base Off Hand Attack Time is now 0.65 seconds at gem level 1 (from 0.7 seconds) and 0.56 seconds at gem level 20 (from 0.61 seconds). Base projectile speed is now slightly faster."

The attack speed issue is slightly fixed I guess? It is a shame that the skill has all these problems when it is awsome in concept. The idea of throwing your shield to deal damage is pretty cool by it self and the animations ingame are also pretty to look at. So i am devoting my first time in Synthesis to making the best out of the worst. I have manage to create a skill tree which can probably take me through the entire gave and even tackle the endgame contet with out any bigger issues.

Build Idea
One of the few good things with spectral shield throw is that it get's an absurd amount of flat physical damage based on the shields Armour/Evasion. So it is kinda easy to get a huge number pretty fast at league start now with the new Crafting system and th easy to obtain increased Quality percentages. Then we convert all the flat physical damage to Elemental damage of diffrent sorts using Uniques and Nodes in the Tree, since it is alot easier to scale the damage after it is converted. At the same time im going to use Added #% of physical as Extra elemental damage which also scales pretty good. I am also going to utilize the deadeye ascendancy and the ricochet node to the fullest by getting chain on 2 items and using the support gem now that it also is receiving a rather big buff.

"Chain support now causes supported skills to deal 30% less damage at gem level 1 (from 50%), up to 11% less damage at gem level 20 (from 31%)."

With the ascendancy node ricochet, items and the support gem I get 4x chain, ricochet also gives 10% more damage for each remaining chain on the projectile. which means that we get a 40% more damage multiplier on the first target the shield hits. It is a pretty big damage buff to single target.


Conversion
I get 40% physical damage to cold conversion from the tree nodes, and the we use the unique gloves. Hrimsorrow or the upgraded version Hrimburn to convert another 50% to cold damage. Together with the League and patch [3.6] we might be able to convert the remaining 10% with gear aswell using the new implicit crafting using fractured items.


Chaining (and maybe fork?)
As mentioned earlier I am going to utilize the ricochet ascendancy node as a Deadeye and by that get +1 Chain and another 10% more damage on the intial hit before the chain starts. After the ascendancy node I am starting to stack chain by the form of Uniques and the support gem. I am also considering using the Fork support for mapclearing since it would greatly increase the spread potential of the shards. And the fact that it also got a buff in the patch notes makes me want to try it out.

"Fork support now causes supported skills to deal 10% less damage at gem level 1 (from 30%), up to 9% more damage at gem level 20 (from 11% less)"



Shields
The best possible shield you could get damage wise is a Colossal Tower shield rare item. And then you would want to craft it with such high armour numbers as possible. A reminder: the quality of the shield also increases the armour it has. For early end game i can recommend A unique shield called Lioneye's Remorse it has high enough Damage output to take you along way while you gather resources to craft or potentially buy a better Rare shield.


Leveling
In the tree I provide with the POB link, im starting of with shield nodes and basic attackspeed which means that in the extreme early game that you could use melee skills such as frostblades or Sunder. At around level 30 I get the Point blank Key node and start to using Spectral shield throw. And when leveling I want to be as close to the enemies as I can be since point blank provides more damage the closer the target is. At around the same time I am going to spend points into conversion via the tree and start using elemental scaleing, with abit of luck I am going to get a pair of Hrimsorrows pretty early. I have included a step-by-step guide in the POB on how to progress the tree.

ascendancy progression (changed from POB)

1. Gathering Winds
To help with leveling by adding attack speed and movement speed!
2. Fast and Deadly
10% attack speed and alot of accuracy! and at the same time a huge damageboost early game.
3. Far Shot
Just to progress towards ricochet, and the distance damage increase can help you with some early map bosses.
4. Ricochet
a HUGE damage increase to single target but you are not going to notice any huge diffrences when it comes to normal mobs.

Path of building Link: https://pastebin.com/Hf5yRvJs
490K Dps on shaper simulated with avrage Gear and the old Chain gem

Going to update my progress with the character at league start, stay safe exile!

Shall be waiting with baited breath to see how this turns out! Really want to do a SST build and this one looks solid...if it works ;3;!

First update comming at around ~20 Hours into the league with a POB link to my equiped gear and skill tree! together with a summary of how it is feeling and working so far :)

So you copied this build and made it your own?

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2094220/page/1

Lol people copying other peoples builds in PoE in 2019??? The shame!!! The other post is a hot mess. this is nice and clean. get off their back.

Shame on me for not doing reaserch i guess?

All the people in the path of exile community are making similar builds that are kinda close to eachother tree-wise, should all of em give credit to other people that have tried it before?

Edit:
Angry_Roleplayers build is pretty close to mine after doing reaserch, but im using other pathing metods and more elemental nodes
his pastebin: https://pastebin.com/zAKGTCjj

gonna league start with this, looks like a clean budget friendly build.. gonna look forward to more build updates. thanks

Noticed there hasn't been any updates so I wanted to give some feedback. I am currently using this as a league starter.

After taking a closer look at the proposed PoB, there are some easy changes to make this build more effective. These adjustments took the DPS to just under 1 Mil (almost double), and I'm sure there is room for more improvement.

Primary changes are running Hatred + Herald of Ash Instead of three heralds. Honestly I don't think original build was even feasible with the mana pool and cost of STT. Also changed STT support gems fore increased damage. Last major change was frost bomb on Damage Taken. Big damage jump here.

In terms of the tree, I added more defense nodes, Life Regen, Max Life & an additional Jewel.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/d26A8gFC

The original build was taking sacred ground on a flask - I don't care for this. too much moving around to make it viable. However I have not replaced this flask yet.

I am only level 40, but the build is running very smooth now. I am having lots of fun being Captain America. It's definately slow starting out. Once you pick up Herald of Ash, clearing picks up. Not to state the obvious, but a good shield is necessary. Each time i Found an upgrade it was a large damage bump. Simply try and find a shield with % inc. Armor/Evasion. Single target wasn't great until I got 4 link STT going. Ancestral Totem + Main (And Faster Attacks) is also a great boss helper.

Hope this helps to anyone wanting to try this build.

I am sorry for the late Feedback, Got caught up in SSFHC insted

But ive started of in Softcore with it by now and i reached 70 Yesterday!

Current gear and tree: https://pastebin.com/QQBsdsux

The leveling prosses was abit slow as i thought it would be, since the skill doesnnt really scale to well early on. but now that im starting to get into map's it startingt to feel alot smoother

And i also went with FORK on since it splits the shield into 2, and its the currently the only way to get more shields (GMP,LMP Gives more Shards).

By now ive got all the essential uniques such as:

I also got a high armour shield on drop:

Will be trying to get some more time on this character! Thank you guys for the feedback aswell!

Hey there! I decided to give this build a try. I'm severely lacking in damage even in act 2. I was wondering if you had any tips for leveling or any uniques that would be good for leveling. Thanks!