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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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)