[3.11] Shaper = Stunned, Tidebreaker Heavy Strike Stunner Build

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locobilbo wrote:

Hey just want to say I played this build up to lvl 79 in HHC, before ripping (I was playing recklessly since I have to go back to work tomorrow). It was very fun and the clearspeed was surprisingly good. I really like how so much of the build synergises with tidebreaker; Empire's Grasp for suction, Perseverance for fortify and onslaught, and the Slayer overkill leech.

I had planned my own tree and build for using Tidebreaker before I saw this build guide. However, I ended up using most of the ideas here for my character. The most significant difference was that I was a bit more focused on getting and scaling armour, since I was playing hardcore and because the uniques the build uses also provide good armour. The only uniques I was missing from the recommended section was taste of hate (too expensive) and Kaom's/Red Blade Tramplers (too little armour). You can see the character on my profile - 'locoduelist'.

I would say that herald of ash is essential for trash clearing due to the extra AOE it provides. Having mana leech too is a really good QOL boost. I chose to take the two leech ascendencies before getting Impact from merciless lab.

RIP. I am happy that my build helped. I would prefer running Iron Reflexes and Grace for HC for that extra juicy armour, so I am surprised that you liked the concept of stacking armour but didn't run the Iron Reflexes and Grace combo. But also as you said, not having Herald of Ash is a huge cut to clear speed.

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brightwaha wrote:

To do a physical reflection map without taking any reflected damage, you need two gems: one attack skill gem with damage conversion(for example Static Strike), and Physical to Lightning support. This combination converts all of your physical damage to elemental. The problem is the Physical to Lightning gem is blue. Usually, if you choose Headsman and have good physical mitigation, even without the Physical to Lightning gem the reflected damage will be minor. To do a elemental reflection map, you turn off both auras and you will deal 0 elemental damage.

Kaom's Heart gives a ton of health and I think is more important than anything else. All 3 of the flasks are nerfed in 3.0. Generally, Lion's Roar is the best one, Atziri's Promise is the cheapest one, and Taste of Hate provides some physical mitigation as well as damage. Choose to invest in flasks wisely as they are no longer auto-picks.

And by the way, if you are still leveling, you might want to consider dropping Bloodlust, this gem is not very ideal for clearing.

Thanks for all of this - this if my first "right-click" character after playing SRS/ED/Warchief totems, so reflect's something I'd never had to consider before! As I'm still wearing the 5-link body armour I I had prior to 5-linking my Tidebreaker, I recoloured it to 4R/1B so I could swap to the Static Strike/Phys To Lightning setup. Clears fantastically, but bosses are a rude awakening after the cruise control stunlock usually provides. Also, I swear I'm rolling the "cannot be stunned" mapmod way more frequently this league ...

Any boss-specific quirks/tips? Took me a few maps to realise I should take a break from the stun-locking in maps like Spider Forest and Crypt to let the bosses summon their HP% threshold adds for extra loot - first times through they never got the chance.

Level 88 now - had a Lion's Roar drop from trash in my first Apex of Sacrifice (& Atziri dropped her Promise); saved up 240ish Chaos and an Exalt so Kaom's Heart isn't too far away, fingers crossed. Just found the last trial, fifteen offerings in - it was the most stress-free Uber Lab of my life, eh. Picked up Brutal Fervour and the MS boot enchant.

For points going forward, if I'm aiming for Stun Mastery, is it worth spending an extra point to path through the two life nodes by Bloodless? Also, is the Scion life wheel the one with Constitution as a notable?

Thanks again for the build/guide/responses; very satisfying character to play and will hopefully take me to 36/40 challenges.

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Haasts wrote:

Thanks for all of this - this if my first "right-click" character after playing SRS/ED/Warchief totems, so reflect's something I'd never had to consider before! As I'm still wearing the 5-link body armour I I had prior to 5-linking my Tidebreaker, I recoloured it to 4R/1B so I could swap to the Static Strike/Phys To Lightning setup. Clears fantastically, but bosses are a rude awakening after the cruise control stunlock usually provides. Also, I swear I'm rolling the "cannot be stunned" mapmod way more frequently this league ...

Any boss-specific quirks/tips? Took me a few maps to realise I should take a break from the stun-locking in maps like Spider Forest and Crypt to let the bosses summon their HP% threshold adds for extra loot - first times through they never got the chance.

Level 88 now - had a Lion's Roar drop from trash in my first Apex of Sacrifice (& Atziri dropped her Promise); saved up 240ish Chaos and an Exalt so Kaom's Heart isn't too far away, fingers crossed. Just found the last trial, fifteen offerings in - it was the most stress-free Uber Lab of my life, eh. Picked up Brutal Fervour and the MS boot enchant.

For points going forward, if I'm aiming for Stun Mastery, is it worth spending an extra point to path through the two life nodes by Bloodless? Also, is the Scion life wheel the one with Constitution as a notable?

Thanks again for the build/guide/responses; very satisfying character to play and will hopefully take me to 36/40 challenges.

Cannot be stunned mod definitely seems to appear way more frequently. I remember chaining this mod as well as physical reflection when I spam my chaos on high tier maps. I don't know why.

I also really liked how Uber Lab can be so easy with this build. As long as we don't somehow get one shot when the boss first comes out, we just spam Heavy Strike and done.

You definitely go from Bloodless to take the Stun Mastery wheel. Spending points on 5% max life is never a waste. And yes, by Scion life wheel I meant the one with Constitution.

Seems you are doing very well. Hopefully you can achieve more with this build and we can exchange more ideas going forward.

I must be stupid and missing something, but why Bloodlust gem? It says against bleeding enemies, and I don't see bleed anywhere.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see it.

as i see there is a similar guide in the marauder forum.
so the question is who is more effective for stunlocking.
marauder or duelist stunlocker?

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gangwars90 wrote:

as i see there is a similar guide in the marauder forum.
so the question is who is more effective for stunlocking.
marauder or duelist stunlocker?

I just saw the marauder guide. There are lots to say, so bare with me. I would like to mention several differences first:

1. Berserker gives 40% more damage(take 10% more also), Slayer gives splash and 20% culling(equivalent to 25% more damage but does not help with stuns).

2. He uses a 6L rare body armour instead of Kaom's Heart. This is because his Heavy Strike does not have splash. He runs both Heavy Strike and Sunder. We do get a lot more max life because we can use Kaom's Heart.

Overall, I think it really comes down to: do you prefer using a splashing Heavy Strike or use Sunder for packs and Heavy Strike for bosses? Make your choice depending on your playstyle.

Generally, if we are only talking about stun-locking, and we only care about single-target bosses, Marauder should be the better choice. But a Berserker build definitely lacks survival, which is very crucial in my opinion. A Berserker build also has huge trouble when dealing with multiple bosses or adds during a boss fight.


I would also like to mention several choices he made in the Berserker guide that doesn't sound right to me:

1. He uses a rare mace instead of Tidebreaker. His weapon deals 5% more damage than mine at the cost of 30% reduced enemy stun threshold, 40 int and a free support gem. I really don't think this is a wise choice.

2. Gem choices. For his Heavy Strike, he uses Added Fire Damage and Multistrike/Maim, this may feel better when clearing trash packs, but just offers way less than Bloodlust and Damage on Full Life in boss fights.

3. Ming's Heart ring. Gain 20% of physical damage does not equal to 20% more damage; because he already has Hatred, Herald of Ash and Added Fire Damage, which also scale from physical damage, this additional 20% of physical damage is only 10% more damage. If we consider the effect of Maim support this ring provides less than 10% more damage. Is it worth it to get 10% more damage and 5% less life from a ring? No.

Overall, I think due to the "mistakes" above, I think I may deal up to 15% less damage, but I am around 25% better at stunning bosses, and have 40% more effective life pool. I just noticed that he posted his build 10 days ago, and I believe he will make some good changes in the future. If those "mistakes" are fixed, as I mentioned above, he should be slightly better at stunning single-target bosses, and still slightly less tanky. But I believe those are minor differences. The major difference is play-style, and make your decision depending on which play-style you like better.

well i played enough marauder and i like your playstyle so i will stay with your build.
do you perhaps have some lvling tipps? when does your build start to stunlock bosses and monster? i started with it on harbringer now.. still only lvl 15. any lvling guide or lvling trees?

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gangwars90 wrote:

well i played enough marauder and i like your playstyle so i will stay with your build.
do you perhaps have some lvling tipps? when does your build start to stunlock bosses and monster? i started with it on harbringer now.. still only lvl 15. any lvling guide or lvling trees?

There are many ways to level up a character, if you have some currency you might want to use the Facebreaker glove and use Shield Charge or Charged Dash maybe. There are many Facebreaker leveling guides online and you can search for it.

If you prefer a normal leveling experience, I suggest using Sunder(support with melee physical damage, multistrike, added fire damage, increased area of effect, faster attacks, etc) and whatever best two-hand weapon you can find. Follow my level 71 tree and you will be doing fine; just remember to avoid jewel sockets and mace specific wheels.

In fact, the passive tree offers mostly life and damage, which is good for any attack build. So you can follow any melee leveling guide online(there will be detailed gem choices and unique recommendations), and use whatever skill you prefer for leveling.

(Submitted previous post twice, so ignore this.)

Level 90 with a fair amount of my gems 20/20 now (& re-levelling another handful). Getting there!

Picked up a Kaom's Heart after scrimping & saving; which takes me into the 6kish life range.
Just had a Tukohama's Fortress drop, which should give me enough currency to get a Vorici 6-link on my Tidebreaker - about how much of a damage increase is adding that final link? Haven't had any Guardian maps drop yet but I'm able to, say, stunlock twinned Kaom in Abyss with my current setup. Overgrown Ruin is a nightmare, though - not sure whether it's the combo of multiple "jumping around" bosses, Warbands bosses having a ridiculous health pool preventing stunlock or the chaos damage, but it's tough going. There's a few bosses where you can't seem to stun them out of a channel, either (the Goddess, Rigwald, etc). Think I'll put points into the Scion life wheel until I have enough to respec to Stun Mastery, assuming I make it to 95.

Amusingly, I'd swapped in Brutality for a lazy ele reflect map, and it seemed like you still got the Herald of Ash explosions/proliferation!

Current gear - happy to take recommendations on upgrades (jewellery & jewels are very slapdash "getting resist-capped" affairs):



Edit: Putting in a poe.trade saved search for 6% life + two damage mods for personal future reference: