[3.15] Spectral Shield Throw Bleed Gladiator - tanky & fast mapping - good scaling - all content

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ericchongws wrote:

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KatKira wrote:

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KatKira wrote:

Hi, I am playing a Shield Crush Glad currently and I wanna switch to SST because the clear is just terrible.

Could someone take a look at my SC character (name is WhyAmIStillDoingThisToM) and tell me how much currency I would need to convert to SST and have similar power levels?

Here is the PoB as well in case someone would like to see it: https://pastebin.com/UCYxMdP7

So, any ideas?

Looking at your tree, it's similar to what this guide is using. You just need minor tweaks, eg. remove diamond skin and the life node next to barbarism. Take the jewel slot below Barbarism and slot in thread of hope (medium) for cleaving, razor's edge, escalation (if using warcry), and slaughter if you want onslaught on kill. Equipment wise, SST and shield crush are very similar since both scale from armor on shield.

I'd suggest try out SST gem setup and roll with it. Not much investment at all to transition to SST

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Monsieur_Ati wrote:

this is my latest variation of the bleed sst build:

venopuncture with hypothermia for an extra layer of defense:

I'm missing bottled faith, awakened gems.
gems are scuffed and I should swap out maim with awakaned swift affliction. but thats what im working on right now

cluster jewels are "one with the shield" to get max block, exposure therapy to counter degen, and usual damage nodes.

aura setup: war banner, pride, arctic armour, herald of purity, aspect of the spider.


rest of the jewels with max life, resists and some stats to get this build rolling.

right now I'm at almost 3.5m bleed dps
it chills, freezes, shatters, explodes, max block, max phys dmg red, phase acro, all in all pretty much op

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catstyle wrote:

Ok, so I finally got to the part where I need help. :D

I am doing red maps, iwich is huge for me, im also having a rather easy time until certain mods appear.
Doing T15 and T16 is hard, and risky, so far I cleared the corrupted ones for atlas completetion but with several deaths, so I just guess I will be stuck at level 91 for a while.
Some of the, like metamorphis and rituals blows me over in T15-16 totally.

The damage is ok-ish, my survival is a bit low, and this is without the crazier mods that reds can have.

https://pastebin.com/BE16Fwe3

What is the huge next/big steps I can take for upgrading my gear?
I know its a bit messy, but I decided to ask for help since I now have 3 or 3,5ex in value, so I want to focus that in the best progress I can.
My talenttree might need a overahaul, or my skillgems. I am working on a 6L Lionseye, but not sure how much that does for general survival and vs large solo monsters, guess its more for clear quality of life?
I have a pretty ok warlords weapon, but the axe I have now had the multiplier to DOT, so that was better on the paper it seemes for now.

Also my flasks needs to be changed, my anti-bleed and corruption flask is borked, its never up when I need it since I used those orbs on it! :')

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ericchongws wrote:

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falagar112 wrote:

despair is giving me nearly 600k bleed dps increase while growth and decay is barely 200k ?

I tried to import your build and change the anoint and slot in despair level 20. Increase is only roughly 100k. Mind sharing the pob u used to get 600k damage increase?
https://imgur.com/a/H3PCc3l

Also, I see that you're overcapping your block chance, I think you can save some skill points by respecing from Sanctuary, make sure you check hit recently in config.

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catstyle wrote:

Ok, so I finally got to the part where I need help. :D

I am doing red maps, iwich is huge for me, im also having a rather easy time until certain mods appear.
Doing T15 and T16 is hard, and risky, so far I cleared the corrupted ones for atlas completetion but with several deaths, so I just guess I will be stuck at level 91 for a while.
Some of the, like metamorphis and rituals blows me over in T15-16 totally.

The damage is ok-ish, my survival is a bit low, and this is without the crazier mods that reds can have.

https://pastebin.com/BE16Fwe3

What is the huge next/big steps I can take for upgrading my gear?
I know its a bit messy, but I decided to ask for help since I now have 3 or 3,5ex in value, so I want to focus that in the best progress I can.
My talenttree might need a overahaul, or my skillgems. I am working on a 6L Lionseye, but not sure how much that does for general survival and vs large solo monsters, guess its more for clear quality of life?
I have a pretty ok warlords weapon, but the axe I have now had the multiplier to DOT, so that was better on the paper it seemes for now.

Also my flasks needs to be changed, my anti-bleed and corruption flask is borked, its never up when I need it since I used those orbs on it! :')

Spoiler

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Zarasi wrote:

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catstyle wrote:

Ok, so I finally got to the part where I need help. :D

I am doing red maps, iwich is huge for me, im also having a rather easy time until certain mods appear.
Doing T15 and T16 is hard, and risky, so far I cleared the corrupted ones for atlas completetion but with several deaths, so I just guess I will be stuck at level 91 for a while.
Some of the, like metamorphis and rituals blows me over in T15-16 totally.

The damage is ok-ish, my survival is a bit low, and this is without the crazier mods that reds can have.

https://pastebin.com/BE16Fwe3

What is the huge next/big steps I can take for upgrading my gear?
I know its a bit messy, but I decided to ask for help since I now have 3 or 3,5ex in value, so I want to focus that in the best progress I can.
My talenttree might need a overahaul, or my skillgems. I am working on a 6L Lionseye, but not sure how much that does for general survival and vs large solo monsters, guess its more for clear quality of life?
I have a pretty ok warlords weapon, but the axe I have now had the multiplier to DOT, so that was better on the paper it seemes for now.

Also my flasks needs to be changed, my anti-bleed and corruption flask is borked, its never up when I need it since I used those orbs on it! :')

As cliche as it sounds, offensive is a good defensive, so boosting up those damage numbers will drastically help you stay alive longer as mobs are going to die before they can cause much damage to you.

I'd do the following. This will:

Triple your bleed damage
Add 250~ life
Overcap your resists for Elemental Weakness security
Remove mana so you don't have to mess around with regen

Spoiler

1. Get a new amulet with Phys DoT, with a prefix slot for life and some resists. A half decent one is around 5 to 15c just to get you going, and then anoint Cleaving.

2. Change the craft on your shield to Int/Quality instead of Str/Quality, which will allow you to drop the two points leading to Versatility. Put those two points towards getting Relentless.

3. Drop Iron Grip from your Spectral Shield Throw links and add in Swift Affliction (or Maim if you are having trouble with the recolour of the sockets).

4. Drop the two points getting Diamond Skin, the two nodes getting Mana Flows, and the 8 points that lead into the Templar area (leaving 12 points to spend). Spend 4 points getting Blood Magic and Mortal Conviction. Spend another 5 points getting Sanctuary. Spend the last three points getting Canabalistic Rites (top route). Drop War Banner from your links.

5. You mentioned you have a Warlords weapon - as long as it has any +x% "increased Physical Damage over Time" roll (whether it be 60% or 90%) and an open suffix to craft "+x% to Physical Damage over Time Multiplier" at the bench, then it's better than what you have. You can also buy a sword or axe like that for 1 chaos. Ideally you also want bleed chance on it as well, then you could drop another skill point from the tree and redistribute it elsewhere.

Bare in mind that "physical damage to attacks" does increase bleed damage, but not by much. From testing 5 to 8 phys to attacks added about 0.3% DPS for me, even an Abyssus which has a truck load of extra phys to attacks only added 2.3%. Also, the physical weapon damage of your main hand weapon doesn't matter at all, such as a level 1 white weapon does the same damage as a level 75 white weapon - it's only the mods on the weapon that we're interested in. Just mentioning this as I notice you're using Steel Rings and they could be switched out to something more useful like resist rings.

6. Make your weapon 3 sockets. Take all the gems out for now, and put in Enduring Cry -> Increased Duration, and Pride. Make sure Enduring Cry and Increased Duration are linked together, but Pride shouldn't be linked to anything. You aren't using Enduring Cry anywhere in your gear and you should. Set this abililty to your "left mouse" mouse ability and it'll automatically cast when you're walking around. It's a nice passive boost.

7. Take all the gems out of your gloves and recolour to RRGG. Add Maim back in that you took out of your weapon, also add in Reckoning from your second weapon set. Buy Culling Strike from the vendor and add it in there, then put Blood Rage in there too. So the links should be: Reckoning -> Maim Support -> Culling Strike Support -> Blood Rage. This will provide you with a source for Maim as well as culling targets with larger health pools, like bosses.

8. Rage in your Corrupting Fever links won't help, so you could drop that and get Brutality in there instead to boost the damage.

9. The gems in your shield can all come out as you don't need any of them. Keep War Banner in your stash though in case you ever want to move to a Lifetap Support set-up. In place of those gems, take the Shield Charge gems out of your helm and put them in your shield, but leave out Lifetap Support. Your shield should be RRG with Shield Charge -> Fortify -> Faster Attacks. You can also use Leap Slam if you find Shield Charge clunky (I hate it personally, it gets stuck on every random pebble on the floor).

10. This will free up your helm. In there add Cast when Damage Taken (level 1) -> Molten Shell (level 10) -> Tempest Shield (level 1). Put Malevolence in this link set-up also, but it won't fire from CWDT as the level is too high.

11. I'd drop your gloves and just get some 10c to 15c gloves with Dexterity, Life, and All Resist, with an armour base. Your base is nice, but the rolls aren't great and more life, attributes, and resists are going to give you greater flexibility for now.

12. Get a cheap-and-cheerful Vulnerability ring with intelligence and a prefix slot for life for around 10 to 15 chaos.

Here's a comparison of what you are currently using vs. the changes:

Spoiler

Total cost is around 20 to 30 chaos at most.

Here's an update PoB for you with a corrected tree, gem links, and gear options: https://pastebin.com/imFdE2gq.

Just a note on Pride and Malevolence also: I've added both to your gear but you only use one at a time. Use Pride when you are constantly in close range of targets (like end-game bosses), and use Malevolence for everything else. Pride only has a mid-range radius and it debuff's monsters rather than buffing yourself, whereas Malevolence will just buff yourself. This means if you're zipping around and killing monsters miles away then Pride isn't helping... however, in close range, Pride provides twice as much damage as Malevolence, so switch over to it for those and keep Malevolence for general mapping.

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ressiv wrote:

You have a nice SSF boy there! I was wondering when would it be better to switch to Blood magic over Lifetap?

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ressiv wrote:

I am also playing SSF when it comes to gear (only trade currency vs currency). I think this build is perfect for it this league, not really feeling the nerfs right now. SST Gladiator feels overpowered af compared to other builds I played previous leagues. High life, easily overcapped resists, gg block, high clear speed and ok damage on bosses. I never die, early red maps right now.