[3.12] A Comprehensive SSF Earthshatter Guide [EASY ALL CONTENT]

Skill Tree:

I encourage you to change the tree as you see fit, since in SSF you can find some item that change your build, or you just don't feel like you need 7K HP. Just a reminder that the damage calculated on Path of Building is NOT accurate, and should be MUCH higher than that.




POB: https://pastebin.com/BXyxE83S

It's kinda different from the image because I've made some changes based on the gear I got.

POE Site:

Early Game


Mid Game

Normal: Master of Metal
Cruel: Unstoppable Hero
Merciless: Fortitude
Uber: First to strike, Last to Fall

Since you won't be dying in maps anyway, even high tier (15,16), I'm using Soul of Solaris, because it helps ALOT when killing bosses, and will even help you facetank some of them.


For the minor pantheon, I use Soul of Shakari, since you're already tanky, and remove any ailment with War Cry's, it does not make sense to really use another one.

Just kill them all. The extra points help you min-max your build on the late game with jewels. You can help Oak, if you don't feel like min-maxing but I don't think it's worth.

Main Attack:
4L (Early Game): Earthshatter - Impale - Fist of War - Melee Phys
5L (Mid Game): Add Brutality
6L (End Game): Add Close Combat or Pulverise depending on your preference/weapon. You can also play with Melee Damage on Full Life if you have manage to get some overleech.


Auras:
Pride
Flesh and Stone - Maim

You can squeeze Vitality here if you want, but I rather have more mana for mobility and War Cry's.

War Cry's
Enduring Cry - Seismic Cry - Intimidating Cry - Second Wind

For last, you can choose your Mobility Skill (Leap Slam, Dash or Flame Dash). If you go for Leap Slam, make sure to get Combat Control on the Skill Tree, and attach Enduring Charge on Melee Stun or Rage for some quality of life improvement.

Defense:
Molten Shell/Vaal Molten Shell - Increased Duration

Alternate Quality Gems

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Anonamlous Fist of War
Support Skills have 20% reduced attack speed.
Support Skills deals 60% increased damage.

According to POB, this gem can boost your damage by about 11%.

Pulverise
Supported skills have 10% less attack speed
Support skills have 20% more melee area damage.

According to POB, this gem can boost your damage by about 13%.

Pride
Nearby enemies have -5% Physical Damage Reduction.

Could not check damage with POB, but basically it's free damage compared with the default version.

You can have some more quality of life changes on other gems like your, Second Wind, Molten Shell, but it's not that important, just helps a little bit more.

The Phantasmal version of Seismic Cry and Intimidating Cry seems like a decent boost of damage as well, and I don't think the 10% recovery speed will be missed that much.

You can also set up some Cast When Damage Taken, with Immortal Call or Curse.

The rest is up to you really.

According to POB, Deep Breaths and Tenacity gives you the most damage. But I think Deep Breaths is calculated kinda weird. Since Oils is hard to get on SSF, there is alot of options here. I'm using Wrecking Ball because I enjoy AS while bossing, but it kinda messes up the Fist of War Gem. As a cheap option, you can for Bone Breaker.

You pretty much stacks your War Cry's, attack one or two times, and War Cry again, using flasks, Molten Shell and movement skills in-between.

On bosses, you should setup your War Cry's:

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Seismic Cry - Attack 2 Times - Intimidating Cry

After that, you can attack 3 times and procc your Earthshatter spikes.
You can do that on almost every boss on the game.

Pretty much some basic gear, Life, Resist and some flat damage.
You don't have to use the Silver Flask, because it's not very good with Fist of War, but I use so I can combo (Seismic and Intimidating Cry) red boss maps without standing still too much.
There's still a lot of min-maxing you can do (with Influenced Gear for example).

Early Game: You get Earthshatter in The Siren's Cadence quest, until then you can level with anything. Get any 2-handed that has the most damage. We go for the War Cry nodes pretty early on the three, so the leveling process is easier. Make sure you have Seismic Cry, Enduring Cry and Intimidating Cry so you can always proc the Earthshatter.

Mid Game: At this point, it's imporant to start crafting some 2-Handers to speed up the leveling process, as well as getting life nodes. Essesnces and some Heists will help you alot if you are stuck with bad gear. By this time, you'll be getting Resolute Technique and some Impale Nodes, wich will cover all your damage issues. Work on your survivability to smooth the process.

End Game: When you start getting to maps, it's time to start geting some 5L (pretty use when doing Heists) and some 500 pDPS weapon so you can start grinding the Atlas with no problemas. Just go for resist and life on your gear, don't look for flat damage and stuff like that, your weapon and war cry's will take care of the damage for you. At this point, you can start getting the fortify nodes on three (after Merciless Lab) or branching out on different paths if you get some gear you want to optimize around.

This is the longest part and where most of people get stuck. I could say some very specific and advanced strategies to progress on Atlas fast, but since I'm focusing this guide to be beginner friendly, I won't do that. So, lets start with some general tips:

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º Always try to run your White Maps, Magic
º Always try to run your Yellow Maps, Rare
º Always try to run your Red Maps, Chiselled and Rare

Note About Red Maps: When you're starting to farm them, try also to add Vaal Fragments, Scarab's, Master's Mission, and some Map Mods (wich is free for the first time you use them). I don't recommend vaaling red maps early on, since it could brick then by rolling some mod the build can't do.

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º Always check Zana before/after doing Conquerors to get your uncompleted Maps.
º Do Higher Tier Maps Recipe (Selling 3 of the Same Map to a vendor)
º Abuse Zana Mission's, to get more Uncompleted Maps.
º Move your Watchstone's from the Atlas from time to time to optimize your Conquerors spawning.
º Check where you've already got most of Watchstones to also change their place.
º Pay attention when get to Awakener level 3, since you'll probabily spawn Awakener soon and won't be able to fight the Conquerors again for a time.
º Build a decent pool of maps before when Jumping from White to Yellow, and Yellow to Red Maps. This is better if you want consistency.
º Just map "4Head". Sometimes it takes a while to progress, and you just have to map for some hours to build a pool of maps.

General mods to avoid early on on red maps:

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Extra damage as elemental
Extra proj
Turbo
Monster Damage
Twinned Bosses
Vulnerability Curse

You can run these mods later, but at the beggining, I tend to avoid them so I don't die on maps, loosing valuable XP.

Mods to avoid:

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Phys Reflect
No regen (very annoying)

Those were the only 2 mods I didn't really do.

For now, this is it. I plan to add more to this part later.

Conquerors:

Al-Hezmin, the Hunter
This is another one that is pretty easy, you just have to have enough chaos resist. If you don't, just use a chaos resist flask. Combo him at the start of the fight, but afterwards you'll attack him only one or two times since he'll be running away.

Verinatia, the Redeemer
This is one you can't really roll over her after monster level 80. You have to dodge some of the attacks, but you can even tank most of them. Just dodge the icicle machine gun that she does, and attack when her you have an opening. Don't forget to use remove freeze if you don't really know the fight. You can set up your combo while waiting for hits attacks.

Drox, The Warlord
This boss is pretty much trivial on this build, you can facetank him even on monster level 83 if you have flasks and molten shell. Just go to him and attack mindlessly until he dies.

Baran, the Crusader
This is one of the most annoying together with Veritania. On high monster level, 80+ you have to be carefull of taking full explosions and slams. The slam is pretty easy to avoid, and the ground explosion too, since you have some time before they explode. Use your movement skill to avoid the draining ground, and if you run out of mana, hit him one or two times to procc the mana leech you have on your gear. You can set up your combo while waiting for hits attacks.

Sirus, the Awakener of Worlds
This fight can be pretty challenging if you have no experience fighting him. So, to be safe and be able to learn the fight, I recommend you corrupt enough jewels until you get a "Cannot be inflicted with corrupting blood mod", because it helps you alot. Also, if you really want to be safe, try to have some chaos resist, about 60%, leaving you on 0% instead of -60%. If you don't know nothing about the fight and really want to learn, you can always remove the stones and do Awakener level 0.

To procc his fights prompts, stay below him while he is speaking, and go away while he is setting up meteors and going to the next phase. You can tank some of his beams, just don't stand there eating every hit and you should be fine. Don't forget to use War Cry's to heal. You can not really combo him very much, so just be patient, using the attack windows you will have between attacks. On the last phase, when he makes copies of himself and start lasering you, is when you have some pretty good openings to attack.
Be patient, and set up your flasks correctly, and you'll evently get him. This build is pretty forgiving with mistakes.

Shaper:
To be added soon.

Crafting is a subject which can be "simple" but at the same tame can be extremely complex. For the sake of this guide, I'll be focusing on beginner crafting.

For now, I'll suggest to craft Weapons, because it's pretty easy.

Leveling
While leveling, you'll probabily be using Essences and the Phys DMG recipe, mentioned on the section below. There is not much mistery here, you can do the recipe, augment, regal and bench crafting.

End Game Weapon
The most basic way to get a good end game pDPS weapon, is first getting a base. Basically, you need to choose a good weapon base.

Since we're not going for very fast weapons because of Fist of War gem, these are the bases I recommend:

Mace: Karui Maul
Axe: Karui Chopper
Staff: Ezomyte Staff (Go for staves only if you want to go crit)

I didn't put Swords because I think they're too fast for Fist of War. But, you can always change the gem if you really want to go for swords.

I always try to get 6L on my armour, so I'll always be able to change weapons if I get a good upgrade, so on the weapon you first have to quality it up (can even do it with Haku to get over 20% qual). After that you use a Orb of Transmutation, and Orb of Alterations until you hit a good mod. Setting the bar too high on mods is a sure way to burn you currency, so here are the mods I suggest you should Regal/Augment:

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Cruel (135–154)% increased Physical Damage - Item Level: 60
Tyrannical(155–169)% increased Physical Damage - Item Level: 73
Merciless (170–179)% increased Physical Damage - Item Level 83

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Razor-sharp Adds (22–30) to (46–56) Physical Damage - Item level: 54
Tempered Adds (27–38) to (58–66) Physical Damage - Item level: 65
Flaring Adds (32–43) to (66–78) Physical Damage - Item level: 77

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of Fame (20–22)% increased Attack Speed - Item level: 45
of Infamy (23–25)% increased Attack Speed - Item level: 60
of Celebration (26–27)% increased Attack Speed - Item level: 77

I got these mods from Axe modifiers, but it should be enough to guide you trough other weapons as well.

On SSF, knowing how to manage your currency is crucial. So, here is some basic tips:

Orb of Chance
Save Orb of Chances, you'll need then to buy maps from Zana, and usually you can also transform then in Scouring, but there is not much need on this league.

Orb of Alteration
Orb of Alteration is GOLD. Avoid wasting then as much as you can. I just use then to roll flasks while leveling. They're very useful to roll some end-game gear, and you'll need alot of them. Since you don't want to be constantly going back to sell gear in the end-game, being smart on how you use them is the way to go.

Orb of Alchemy
Orb of Alchemy is also pretty. I only use them while leveling if I absolutely have to. Since you'll be alching most of your high level maps, and also using it to buy maps from Zana, is good to have some decent control over it. Thankfuly, Alchemys are not very hard to get, especially on this league.

Chaos Orbs
Chaos orbs will be used to roll maps, and craft on the bench, mostly. From time to time, I'll also Chaos Spam some itens, especially on this league since is pretty easy to get them. You won't be using it while leveling, unless for good crafts.

Jewelers and Fusings
Jewelers and Fusings have to also be used in a smart way. I don't like to waste them, especially because is very hard to a 6 link. So I'll always be getting Haku on Syndicate, to quality your Weapon or armor before trying to link it. Later on, you'll unlock the % Quality craft, so you won't be always needing Haku, except on Unique itens. I usually use a few Jewelers while leveling in a good item if I don't have enough slots for the War Crys, but only start to use fusing when I get to Act 6.

Vaal Orbs
Vaal Orbs is also good to saved, so you can corrupt jewels to get corrupted blood immunity to fight Awakener, to corrupt your gems and red maps. Usually you won't have much problems with it.

GCP's
GCPS's on this league is pretty easy to get, so you can be more flexible on the way you use them, but usually I always save it for rerolling level 20 gems, and finishing up some high quality gems I find.

Chisels
You will always want to save chisels for red maps, there is not much here.

Regals
On this league is also pretty easy to get Regals, so you can have fun with them while crafting itens and jewels, but usually I save enough for good crafts.

Exalted Orbs
Exalts is for end-game crafts only. You'll only use to slam you get a really GG item.

Orb of Transmutation and Augs
Orb of Transmutation and Augmentation is really importante on the early game, because you'll be use them to craft alot. But later on they're pretty useless. So, just be sure to not waste them early game.

Phys DMG Mod Recipe:

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Great to do while leveling, I usually start to do on ACT 3~4.
You can augment, regal, and use the crafting bench afterwards. If you don't have regal it's not a big deal, you can just do the recipe again with a better Weapon base later.

Higher Tier Map Recipe:

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This recipe is very very good on SSF, because it can help speed up your atlas progression, since you can't buy new maps. I start doing this recipe, after I have enough of a map pool.

GCP Recipe

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Pretty famous recipe, but I i tought I should mention here anyway.

Sextant Recipe

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Zoom here
This recipe is great to downgrade some sextants, when you wanna farm lower level maps. Usually I do this when i just jump colors on maps, so when I switch from White maps to Yellow, sometimes i get a yellow sextant, and I downgrade it.

On Heist, there is 4 Gang Members and type of Heists you should be focusing on:

Members: Tibbs, Huck, Niles & Gianna.
Heists: Brute Force and Deception

Focusing on these members, you can maximize you chance to get good 6L armors and good pDPS weapons and maybe a 6L as well.

Facebreakers is a really good option, since you'll have ALOT of flat damage with Master of Metal. You don't even need much more flat dmg on gear to outscale a very good pDPS weapon. And, you can use a shield for even more defense.


Curse on hit rings can give you a good bost on defense as well.

These two itens is not very hard to get on SSF, the first one you can even speed farm with Heists. The second one you can get by Delving, or use Caster Fossils to try to craft it yourself, since Curses on ring has the Caster mod.