[3.20] Ice Shieldmaiden Scion Build

I'm currently trying this build out as my league starter. Just made it into maps and I'm getting absolutely destroyed. My damage is awful and I'm dying extremely quickly. I couldn't even do the first T1 Kirac Map without a friend to come bail me out.

I don't exactly have the gems setup exactly yet since I only just hit maps, but this is quite possibly the worst situation I've ever been in starting up maps. I'm not even really sure what to attempt to fix first, I don't have the currency to buy up gear yet, or the capacity to even make currency right now. I can use some regrets to respec a bit but even then I don't know if I go for more damage or survivability at this point that or just try and respec into something else entirely.

This isn't a slight on your build or anything, I just feel like I'm missing something here and could maybe use a hand in fixing this before I give up on it entirely

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DarkAvenger211 wrote:

I'm currently trying this build out as my league starter. Just made it into maps and I'm getting absolutely destroyed. My damage is awful and I'm dying extremely quickly. I couldn't even do the first T1 Kirac Map without a friend to come bail me out.

I don't exactly have the gems setup exactly yet since I only just hit maps, but this is quite possibly the worst situation I've ever been in starting up maps. I'm not even really sure what to attempt to fix first, I don't have the currency to buy up gear yet, or the capacity to even make currency right now. I can use some regrets to respec a bit but even then I don't know if I go for more damage or survivability at this point that or just try and respec into something else entirely.

This isn't a slight on your build or anything, I just feel like I'm missing something here and could maybe use a hand in fixing this before I give up on it entirely

Taking a look at your build, it seems like you tried branching towards the left to grab max resist and some nodes on that side. That isn't a bad choice in general but in this case it doesn't mix well because there's little synergy and it sets you back in other important areas. Things I suggest you do:

1. Get rid of all the nodes on the marauder side and start allocating mana reservation nodes. They help a LOT, *specially* since taking both the Duelist and the Templar Mana Reservation clusters will let you run Tempest Shield. You're still on Versatile Combatant, which you want to respec out as soon as you can. TS and spell block on your shield will get you there. Stone of Laz as your amulet will push you past the 50% max from Versatile combatant easily (so you can drop it), and it's cheap as chips.

2. You need more block on your shield. You have no extra regular or spell block on it, which is just not going to cut it in maps. There's several uniques with extra block or spell block you can use that are very cheap too. If not, run some blood aqueducts or burn some orbs of alteration, because extra block will help you more (in this build) than a shield with big armour. A blue shield with only life and extra block is better than a rare without either, no matter what else it has.

3. The vortex/Bonechill/curse setup is a huge help, you really shouldn't skip it. Vortex by itself doesn't do a lot of damage, but the boosted chill effect plus the curse are a great boost to your combined DPS. Remember you double cold damage with your hits since everything will be chilled.

4. You grabbed Courage on the Armour+Evasion group. Courage is pretty meh, specially when you just got to maps. Drop it and the previous small node, and grab Cloth and Chain instead, which also will help with resistances and give you a bit more flexibility with gear.

5. According to PoB, your chance to hit is pretty low. Craft some accuracy in your gear and you'll see a boost on reliability of your damage and survivability. Frozen enemies don't attack.

6. Conqueror's efficiency is pretty meh once you've allocated both the mana reservation clusters, so you can get something more helpful in there after changing that.

Overall I think the biggest mistakes you've made are branching for the Marauder side (which, again, I understand because it often works well; for this build it just has very little synergy), skipping mana reservation which bites on the auras you can run, and skipping the debuff/curse group. Once you get those sorted, grab Tempest Shield, and boost your accuracy with crafts or items, you should see a marked improvement. After that, chase a better shield with more block/spell block, and consider the Stone of Lazhwar even if it's only temporary (your current amulet isn't really doing much for you).

Going forward, in general, look for armour + evasion gear (doesn't matter much while doing the campaign, but now it will), and maybe test out swapping in Grace for Hatred for the time being if you can't run both.

Also going for the Gladiator first would have helped (thanks to the extra block and max melee block) but that's a bit academic since at the end of the day you have to grab both and 75% max block is already very good :)

Here's a suggestion for your tree, once you clip the marauder branch: https://pastebin.com/PS5Fy2bT (EDIT: I added the vortex+curse and Tempest Shield gems in literally random places just to look at the numbers, so don't worry if it looks odd. Add them in the right place where you can).

After that, go straight towards Galvanic Hammer. Big damage boost.

Ah thank you so much. That's a very indepth response. I'll look at trying those suggestions out. Just kind of scraping some regret orbs together to swap my those passives out.

With the templar start point coming out so late I had to put those points somewhere :p.

Things are looking and feeling way better now. I've mostly got the skill setup you've suggested, though I'm missing some links mostly because I've run out of chromes. Still working on that.

The biggest hurdle I'm trying to hit now is being able to have enough mana reservation available to turn on Grace. I'm still running precision, though I wonder if I could drop that at some point without affecting my accuracy too much.

Even so I tested without it and Grace still consumes most of my mana, It's hard to tell if an enlighten support gem would fix that or not since it just gives me an extra 8% more efficiency (at max level) right?

Any suggestion on this part would be great. The biggest one I'm thinking is to reallocate the rest of the Marauder nodes you mentioned I should respec before over to the Duelist's mana efficiency section. However I feel like the loss of extra max life may not be worth it at this point, I'm only barely not getting one shot now when my blocks/evades fail, so dropping the life for what would only be extra evasion might just result in more one shots as I can't effectively rely on blocks/evades always working.

I've got some new gloves and shield ready soon as well which will cap out my block so no worries there, just working on the gem links/colours

That's great to hear. If you're short on chromes but have jewellers, you can use the bench crafting trick to get off-colour sockets in your gear.

Start with two sockets. Do a three socket craft, it won't change the color of the existing sockets. If you hit the color you want, great. If not, craft two sockets, then three to try again. Once you hit it, do the same with four sockets, going back to three sockets if you didn't hit it, and so on. Wouldn't recommend for painting 6-sockets, but for four it's pretty good.

Mana reservation goes through small cluster jewel(s). A 3-node with a notable that adds 50% reservation efficiency to either Hatred or Grace will get you there most of the way. If you're having trouble with the rest of the gear giving you enough reservation, you might need two - slotted on a large cluster jewel. Other than that, essence-slamming a helmet for guaranteed reservation efficiency is quite good.

The thing about Precision is to have it as low level as you can get away with and still have capped to-hit, so big accuracy bonus on gear will let you save on reservation there.

Also, the Armor and Evasion Mastery node can give you 100% Defiance Banner efficiency, which isn't huge (seeing as it only reserves 10%), but helps.

One of these too:



But in general, the biggest thing is: Get the small cluster with the big reservation notable, make a helmet with reservation efficiency using essences, and get enough accuracy to be able to use a much lower level of Precision. After that it's a matter of pushing past the corner. You might even want to grab the accuracy cluster down the Duelist end of the tree, not only for the accuracy but for the Precision reservation mastery too.

So the new ascendency jewels can be cheap. I picked up one of each of the flame and flesh jewels for the Gladiator, and then added Raider on the actual tree. Allows us to get onslaught, phasing, frenzy charges, and spell supression as well as the Max Block. I feel it is well worth the two passive points since we pass by two easy to grab jewel slots.

Here is trade links to the Gladiator Jewels for Scion.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Archnemesis/82Dpp3VFV

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Archnemesis/bW6Ld6GcL

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Artophwar wrote:

So the new ascendency jewels can be cheap. I picked up one of each of the flame and flesh jewels for the Gladiator, and then added Raider on the actual tree. Allows us to get onslaught, phasing, frenzy charges, and spell supression as well as the Max Block. I feel it is well worth the two passive points since we pass by two easy to grab jewel slots.

Here is trade links to the Gladiator Jewels for Scion.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Archnemesis/82Dpp3VFV

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Archnemesis/bW6Ld6GcL

That's really cool. I wasn't sure where the prices for them would set since they were all quite expensive early on, but I guess it makes sense with the Scion not being exactly popular.

I think Raider and Berserk are the best options for this build. Raider is super solid with Frenzy on Hit, phasing and all the rest you pointed out. Berserk and rage (plus the Rage nodes one can easily access) is also very very attractive, and yes, definitely worth the two jewel slots. We essentially have three slots we can easily access, and an easy fourth if one goes for the Large Cluster Jewel (with the fifth reserved for mana reservation).

I've been quite busy with the launch of Lost Ark, but I should be able to split more time once work calms down a bit and I can get more gaming time. I think the guide's due an upgrade with all the feedback I've gotten here (so thanks!). Also I think it's worth detailing a build without Tempest Shield to go easy on the mana reservation.

Thanks for the guide, got my witch to level 90 so time for a new character for me.

Will give this one a swing :)

nice non meta build! seems like it could be a good league starter as its inexpensive. but curious if you have any suggestions on how to level up with this

Hello!

With 3.18 releasing with no major balance changes, is there anything you would try differently? I've been looking around for builds and I think I'm just about settled to league start with yours.

Thanks!