[3.0] Ground Slam Stunner Juggernaut

Hello everyone! This is a build guide to my Ground Slam Juggernaut.

About the character:
This build focuses on building a straightforward, very defensive Juggernaut with a 2-handed mace.
This has been my main character ever since i've played the game.
Ground Slam has never been a
T1 or T2 skill, yet it has always been my absolute favorite, even more now that stunning items got a small buff in 2.6, and GS's Threshold Jewel was remade.

-Please refer to Earthquake guides if you wish to play EQ. Forums are flooded with EQ guides. This guide is for Stunning Ground Slam, which is very different in passive tree, itemization, and mechanics.
Lets begin.

PROS


CONS


Leveling with the build is easy. You can start using Ground Slam in Act 1 normal, which you get from Nessa right after killing Hillock and entering Lioneye's Watch. Switch to Quality GS when possible.
Advance to Resolute Technique in the passive tree as soon as possible. Start moving to the duelist area, and later to the templar area.

BANDITS

Kill all for +2 skill points. New 3.0 Oak bonus is terrible, while Alira and Kraityn are useless for this build.


GEARING



WEAPON

Optimal 2-Handed mace would have good physical damage, good attack speed, Stun threshold and duration.

I managed to craft the Piledriver on the left this week, and I prefer it though it has less dps than Meatgrinder. However, Piledriver is the fastest 2h Mace Base with the best Implicit of 45% increased stun duration on enemies. Instead of highest DPS I went for the highest speed. This also increased my clearspeed and quality of life significantly. Very fast weapon also helps in difficult boss encounters, where I may switch Added fire to Life Gain on Hit gem.

Tidebreaker is an excellent Stun-oriented weapon that can be used up to endgame. Marohi Erqi is a fine unique weapon, if you cannot afford a good rare 2h mace, or Tidebreaker.

STUN THRESHOLD



ARMOUR


Brass Dome is the core defense of the build. Around 4k armour that we double with the Unbreakable Juggernaut passive takes our armour to extreme levels. Immunity to extra damage from Critical Strikes helps against spell damage peaks. These usually sell for 1-2ex in a new league. Before you can get your hands on it, use body armour with Life, High armour, and resistances.

There have been some questions regarding the amount of armour. With full Endurance charges, our armour goes way over 90% Estimated phys reduction. However, "Estimated Physical Damage Reduction" Is not a reliable source of information. This is the amount of damage you are estimated to mitigate when a normal monster of your level hits you.

To mitigate a certain amount of physical damage, we need to have armour value x times greater than the amount of damage taken:

25% Mitigation = Armour > DMG x 4
50% Mitigation = Armour > DMG x 12
75% Mitigation = Armour > DMG x 36
90% Mitigation = Armour > DMG x 108

Imagine Minotaur hitting you for 5k damage. How much armour do you need to reduce it by 50%?
Fortify and Endurance Charge values are calculated on top of the effect of Armour.
Video below demonstrates how Armour actually works against damage, and why we scale it very high.
https://youtu.be/7OoAJda587g


JEWELS

Look for Life, Attack speed with Maces, and Physical damage. Rapid Expansion Threshold jewel got a nice buff in 2.6, granting Ground Slam a 35% increased angle, and a 25% chance to gain an endurance charge on stun. It is good to have at least 1 of these socketed in the tree.
(Optimal Jewels)




I use only 1 Rapid Expansion. This can be considered as a DPS increase for the simple reason that your attack will hit more monsters at once.

I feel that 121 degree cone is great enough. The rest of my sockets are filled with 7% life, mace AS, Dmg jewels.



FLASKS

This is my current setup with an instant Life Flask, Bleed removal flask, Quicksilver, Silver Flask and Lion's roar.
On my Instant Life Flask I have Poison removal, and Bleed removal on the other.
It is a good idea to have Shock immunity on your Silver Flask, IF you don't use Veruso's.



GEMS


VIDEOS
[2.6] Facetanking T16 Minotaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZdVL6emLxA
[2.6] Shaped T14 Coves : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6rT3Wjpa8
[2.6] Shaped T15 Quay : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6MTsQrVNC4
[2.6] Shipyard T12 18% Phys Reflect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V4H61erz8c

PASSIVE TREES [3.0]
These are my skill trees at level 98 with slightly modified variations for different purposes.
https://www.pathofexile.com/build/A47zCe (My current tree. Extra Life leech from Vitality void)
https://www.pathofexile.com/build/oZVms9 (Original tree with Stun Mastery. Note that the positioning of Stun Mastery in the tree takes alot of travelling points instead of taking the lowest path from Marauder to Duelist area.)




JUGGERNAUT

Unyielding / Unrelenting is down to your personal preference.

If you have any questions, notice a mistake or have suggestions, please let me know in this thread or ingame. My IGN is Paukuttaja. I'm happy to help all beginners and experienced players alike, so do not hesitate to ask!

You players who play this build and have been active on this thread are the reason I keep updating and adding information and content to this build.

Thank you! :)

Edits:
20.08.2017 Build updated to 3.0 (Flasks, Auras, Skill Trees, Gem Links, Bandits)
29.06.2017 Added new gear with Curse with Vulnerability Veruso's, weapon info
21.03.2017 Added Veruso's Battering Rams and Endurance charge based Skill Tree
01.04.2017 Added Perseverance, belt info and Mana Leech info
03.04.2017 Added Juggernaut Passives and Life Passive Tree
06.04.2017 Added Armour explanation, calculation chart and video, Stun Threshold info

Groundslam is one of my favourite skills, I'm glad to see a build that is less of a joke and actually viable in HC.
*EDIT* I can't read
P.S Thanks for this, I'm really looking forward to doing this.

With this amount of phys mitigation u can easily swap ur boots for rare and ur helmet for abyssus. It will make ur build more guardians viable. Maybe even shaper.

Switching to abyssus gave only 14k dps (Conc effect, hatred, 3 frenzys, 5 endurances, Blood Rage) and for the fact that this is a RT build, it's huge melee crit multiplier goes to waste. To get better use of abyssus, it is better to use it with a Staff (Mostly Hegemony's Era) for better critical strike abilities.

Nice to see some fellow ground-slammers. Made a stun guide some leagues ago, I have a similar setup and skill tree, but with a few differences. You might find it interesting to check out :)
F.ex the Life generation pr.endurance chargge node, and the Tirelsess cluster brings some nice QOL.

Thank you Dkodr for replying! I remember your guide back in the day, and it was one of my innovators back then with the idea of applying Heavy Strike for single target DPS. You are right, so much life regen for only 1 point is definitely worth it, I will see this change in my tree. Tirelessness however, is no longer that valid after they reduced melee skill mana costs significantly few leagues ago, and as it also costs 1 travel point, I prefer to fill the big life wheel instead. Keep up the slam!

How would you go about the tree for a more crit oriented/hegemonys era groundslammer? I assume go for some abyssus action and switch out some gems? Thanks in advance!

Hey Seinakooder! I made a build I would use with Hege's Era crit Ground Slam:
Hege Crit Ground Slam

You will need Immortal Call setup with abyssus. I tried Minotaur with Abyssus, and without IC setup it was a complete disaster. Damage is higher with crit staffs, but lack of mace and stun in general will make monsters with big life hit you hard.

For Juggernaut, you can choose Undeniable to get 1% increased attack speed for every 200 accuracy, which you will have a couple tons with crit. I recommend Unrelenting to keep up Endurance Charges for Immortal Call + Cast when damage taken setup.

For gems, prioritize +Life%. Rest of the stats can be Crit Chance and Staff Damage. You may want to skip Attack Speed, if you choose to use Juggernaut's Undeniable passive which gives alot of AS along with all your Accuracy.

Thank you for your reply!

"

Maukka4ever wrote:

Hey Seinakooder! I made a build I would use with Hege's Era crit Ground Slam:
Hege Crit Ground Slam

You will need Immortal Call setup with abyssus. I tried Minotaur with Abyssus, and without IC setup it was a complete disaster. Damage is higher with crit staffs, but lack of mace and stun in general will make monsters with big life hit you hard.

For Juggernaut, you can choose Undeniable to get 1% increased attack speed for every 200 accuracy, which you will have a couple tons with crit. I recommend Unrelenting to keep up Endurance Charges for Immortal Call + Cast when damage taken setup.

For gems, prioritize +Life%. Rest of the stats can be Crit Chance and Staff Damage. You may want to skip Attack Speed, if you choose to use Juggernaut's Undeniable passive which gives alot of AS along with all your Accuracy.

Thank you for your reply!

Thanks a bunch for the thorough reply, will be trying this out for sure! Also in which order would you take the ascendancies?

"

seinakooder wrote:

Thanks a bunch for the thorough reply, will be trying this out for sure! Also in which order would you take the ascendancies?

I would go for safety first (if you want to do Crit Staff version)

1. Unbreakable - remember to take passive point off from Unwavering Stance if you have it allocated
2. Unflinching
3. Unrelenting
4. Unstoppable / Undeniable / Unyielding are all good options. Unyielding may be the best choice if you are having trouble staying alive with abyssus.


Unyielding goes really well with this belt. You get Fortify on Stun, and Onslaught when fortified!
It costs only 1 alchemy on league, and few chaos on Standard.