Armour breaker Thornbringer

Not sure if hitting a brick wall or reaching burnout/boredom of the season.
Yes, plenty of room of optimisation but the same time there are no clear and obvious paths that I see.


For the minmaxers I cant even describe if my main damage is actually from thorn or armour breaking?
Allegedly somehow I supposed to have 40k armour and 10k baseline thorn, yet I have no idea how when I am level 87 and farming t15 maps with t0 pinnacle bosses.


The vision:
Warbringer ascendency
[Imploding impacts] focus
With this armour breaking goes into reciprocal value -> not only hitting true physical damage, but even increased damage from physical.
This doesnt only increase damage output, but increase survivability indirectly, since I went to the
[Vengence] skill branch (26% of thorn damage is leeched)

[Turtle charm] for survivability
With [Lay Siege] (1% increased damage per block chance) this is also a offensive pick.


Went for every Physical damage increase that I could reach.
[Battle fever] branch (55% extra physical damage + 5% extra skill speed)

[Cruel methods] 43% extra physical damage + 50% better armour break

[Punctured Lung]+[Pile on] for 30% increased BA effect + disable regeneration + Maim when enemies have FBA debuff. +40% extra damage against enemies with FBA

[Brute strength] is a must have if youre already there

[The Molten One's Gift]: while I dont get the benefit of the extra fire damage, still 45% extra effect of FBA + 20% damage increased and a bit of fire resistance that is nice...

[Goring] +50% physical damage + 40% leech
Something I felt I need to grab.

Skillpoint saved on everything that extends BA time (need to refresh anyway for [Scavanged plating]

We can also skip the [Spiked armour] to save 3 point. No need for thorn to ignore enemy armour, when you break them in 2-3 hits anyway...

For defensive nodes I picked block chances in reach:
[Vigilance] +12% block chance +10hp per block
[Towering shield] +8% block chance +25% block chance after active block (that is part of main rotation)
[Hunker down] +15% block chance +20hp per block
The increase maximum block chance becomes irrelevant since Turtle charm sets it to 75%.
[Prism Guard] +60% of armour to elemental with full branch
[Blade catcher]+15 STR + 200% armour against crit is a 1 point skill
[Sturdy metal] +80% body armour, sadly doesnt synergize with [Revenge]

[Unyielding] 20% reduced slow effects +17% attack speed if you been hit
This was something I felt was in reach and temporal bubbles and ice enemies are quite irritating. Thawing charm is a must have imho...

With this build path I managed to get 3 Jewel slots


So far I see every thorn build focus on crit, but I personally dont like that path. Firstly there are already so many stats you need to get.
I think the armour breaking compensates enough for the crit chance/crit damage/accuracy stats
Second: you dont need the unique boots as must have either.
The Pale King is already a low level unique that is a MUST have for the build, and crumble a tear every time I see how many stats I need to throw away when picking up helmets.

And my current itemisation:
https://poe.ninja/poe2/profile/Kraivan-1745/character/Eskater

So here is the struggle:
Still need like 25% elemental to get 75% everywhere.

Need to replace those Jewels, just not sure what to?
- Increased damage against FBA
- global physical damage
- increased thorns
- increased armour
Are the top choices.
But those timeless jewels make things more complicated...

But also worth to consider block chance rubys and free up 3 skillpoints from [Towering shield] and move it to
a) [Tempered defenses] +55% armour +30% armour to elemental
b)[Made to Last]63% armour + 5% physical damage recoup
c) [Finality] +180% extra damage against enemies on low life
d) [Vaal pact] Leech is instant

Neck enchant?
I just remembered I still need that...
[Endured Suffering] seems tempting from the opposite side of the skilltree. 20% more physical damage +10% physical damage recoup
Or I can just pick the few skills from the list right above that I need lvl91+

Not even sure if I should stick to the increased melee damage skill nodes either?
Since my AOE rotation is the following:
Resonate shield + Ironward

Against single target the rotation is:
Resonate shield to break armour. I use [Uruk Smelt] Lineage gem that adds 5% extra physical damage up to 20%

When Scavanged plate is close to expiration, or I need hp reg I use [Leap Slam] to consume FBA from enemy, and Holy Descend adds life regeneration + reduced curse effects.
Use Sunder to further increase physical damage, however I admit, I am not sure how effective it is, since it only increase damage from hits. In that chaos I have no idea if I am even wasting time with my other skills or should just autoattackwith my Barbed mace?

Still... [Fortifying cry] to get some extra health with guard
+ shield wall to trigger the Crys shockwave.

Usually the rotation is:
resonate shield, fortifying cry, sunder, shield wallx2, iron ward


back to the item stats:
So need thorns wherever I can
need armour
armour to elemental
STR
Life
Accuracy can be skipped with Jade mace (always hits)
And obviously juggle with resistances

Currently "only" have 2.4k HP, I dont know how players get 4k...
And the dilemma is that I either get damage or hp, and I am far from "oneshotting" bosses.

But was wondering if I need to get some Spirit?
Cannibalism or Vitality could be handy
If not picking [Time of need] for a small heal and removing debuffs


I sort of aware the weakness of the build is that the skill gems cant really be leveled up.
The meta builds are +skill levels from weapon and necklace, but neither Iron ward or Scavanged plate can be increased this way.
Getting the + mace skill levels would divert from thorn build, so I think min-maxing logic in that case would be just scrap the idea and focus on whatever that mace skill is...

Other weakness is you need to learn what you can facetank and what damage you MUST tank to trigger thorn. So expect to die a LOT either to learn patterns
or be shocked that even though you stack armour, enemies with physical damage can still oneshot you.

At least mana isnt really an issue. I can put a point to [Blood Magic] if needed, but [Ataluis] lineage gem frees up the most manahungry skill, while barbed Mace, Scavanged Plate and Iron ward are free
the rest of the skills can be managed with mana flask