[3.5] Vulpix0r's Shattering Steel Champion build guide, newbie friendly
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I’ve seen some opinions on the new Steel skills, and wanted to test them properly after reading how bad they are. After some testing, I found out Shattering is pretty good and continued to level with this skill and finetune it. At level 90 right now, still pushing to end game content, but I’ve been able to do red maps up to T15 comfortably. Bosses and syndicates have not been a big issue as I can burst them down quickly.
Do note that this is a pure physical variant. Pastebin is in the passive skill tree section. Changelog
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V1.0 - Added build V1.1 - New findings on maximizing damage, Fork is a must. V1.2 - Lioneye's Vision is no longer the best chest piece. (30/12/18) V1.3 - Changed some of my gear, added a better shopping guide for gear and jewels.  Pros - Superb single target damage with the shotgun effect - Cheap and possible to start with no gear fresh in league - Sword based so lots of nice uniques to bring you even to red maps - Gear is cheap - Decent clear speed Cons - Heavily dependant on positioning - Trying to hit more than 6k+ life is hard - You need to be on your feet during syndicate fights - Build feels weak until you get Greater Multiple Projectiles - Unable to use a lot of awesome flasks like Taste of Hate, Atziri's Promise, etc.  This skill thrives on projectiles. More projectiles, the better. Be at point blank range, fire away at the tough monsters. Make sure to manage your flasks properly, and enjoy the massive number of projectiles. Do note that shotgun is a thing for this build. 
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Level 90 tree
My current pastebin: https://pastebin.com/FHA99sVM Help Alira for the multi and resists, easier to manage at the start of a new league. Ascendancy: Master of Metal -> Conqueror -> Worthy Foe -> Inspirational 
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New character? Fresh from drowning? Here’s what you need for act 1! Keep your Chance to Bleed gem after killing Hillock, then level with whatever skill you want like Molten Strike or Cleave, grab Maim as well. Remember to grab Lesser Multiple Projectiles and War Banner. After hitting Merveil’s cave, you will get access to Shattering Steel. At this point, your links will be: Shattering Steel + Maim + Chance to Bleed. Reached act 2? Great! Grab Herald of Purity for a nice damage boost, Vicious Projectiles and Blood Rage. Enduring Cry if you can afford it but it’s not a priority. You should try to get a 4L with 3 green sockets and 1 red, for this combination: Shattering Steel + Vicious Projectiles + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Chance to Bleed What your tree should roughly look like: https://poeplanner.com/AA8AADkADzQBABm5HRXsivDpRsqQhNlHfr02ZU2-p2BBY3AR1VeXQzHawXTtBS1670z_Tioj028nmmqPYAAAAAAA In act 3 now? Grab Haste or Grace depending on your preference, or just get both and level them until you have decided which you like. We will also be grabbing Dread Banner. If you don’t mind doing the Library quest in the Imperial Garden, you can grab Fork to level. If you can afford the intelligence, purchase Increased Critical Strikes to level, Blood Magic to connect to your leap slam. Finally in act 4? Grab whatever golem you want, it doesn’t matter as we’re not going to use one since they are pretty stupid. Once you’re done killing Kaom and Daresso, grab Brutality ASAP and replace Lesser Multiple with Greater Multiple Projectiles. The links you have at this point should be: Shattering Steel + Brutality + Vicious Projectiles + Greater Multiple Projectiles What your tree should roughly look like at this point: https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAGEADzQBAC25HRXsivDpRsqQhNlHfr02ZU2-p2BBY3AR1VeXQzHawXTtBS1670z_Tioj028nmmqPYFuvDY2Hdkp9_MXuDqOKI_ZNko19MHzUUsv1MbDcvecPsbMbrRR1pMIAAAAAAA== That’s all for the guide for the crucial gems. The above setup should work flawlessly. 
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My current gear
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Recommended gear
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Yep. 2c end game swords. This sword cost me 2c. It works great even in red maps. This is purely a preference thing. I know Haemophilla is a good pair of gloves as well, but I like having more life and some utility. Enchant? Get whichever you can afford. All the enchants are good, including extra projectile, increased damage or fortify on hit. Things to look out for on rare gear: Just get life and resists on your stuff. Cap your resists, get as much life as possible. What to look for in accessories? Get as much flat physical damage as possible. Or look for a free prefix to craft it on. Depending on your build's level, crafting increased damage might be better than flat, so please check. Things to look out for: Projectile damage, attack speed, crit multi with 1h swords or dual wielding or global crit multi, and physical damage. Life is also nice to have if you have a bigger budget. Remember that melee related jewels will not work with this skill as it's not a melee skill. Leveling Gear
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Mana issues? Resist issues? Life leech issues? Fret no more, just use a damn Thief's Torment. Used this sword till I could switch to my Beltimbers. If you can't afford a good chest piece yet with Elder base, get a Belly of the Beast. 
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Main
Before getting dual Beltimbers: Shattering Steel + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork If you’re on a 5L, leave Fork out. After getting dual Beltimbers: Shattering Steel + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork + Increased Critical Strikes Do note that Fork for some reason increases your single target damage due to the nature of the shotgun-ny nature of Shattering Steel. Herald and Aura Grace or Haste, Herald of Purity We will be running Grace (or haste for more speed), it’s a great way to boost your evasion as we’re depending on both our armour and evasion to survive, along with our granite flask to mitigate the big phys hits. Herald of Purity is the only one worth running that will give us additional flat physical damage. Movement Leap Slam + Blood Magic + Fortify + Faster Attacks Nothing special, just use whatever you like, even Whirling Blade. Utility Blood Rage + Dread Banner + Enduring Cry I think it’s quite straight forward, blood rage for frenzy charges and attack speed, dread banner for that sweet impale, enduring cry to generate endurance charges. Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Enfeeble Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Culling Strike These are strictly a preference thing. This is what I ended up using. You generate charges to the teeth, so level your CWDT to the max, immortal call as well, or as high as you can possible level.  Q: How does projectile speed scale with Shattering Steel? A: From my own testing, projectile seems to affect how "fast" the projectile moves only. It does not increase the range of the projectiles which is always fixed. Slower Projectiles on our links for some reason makes our "swing" slower and the projectiles taking a bit longer to reach the full distance, but it's really negligible for the amount of damage the gem gives. PROJECTILE SPEED DOES NOT MODIFY THE SKILL'S RANGE. Q: Does this skill shotgun? A: Yes. From the introduction page: The projectiles are unleashed in rapid succession, making them capable of hitting close enemies with multiple projectiles. Yes, it shotguns with more projectiles. It's glorious. Q: Can I use other high DPS swords instead of the shitty Beltimbers? A: Of course. Just get rid of Increased Critical Strikes, slot in Greater Multiple Projectiles.  T16 Minotaur run (laggy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E81Cl3R8JE Last edited by Vulpix0r on Jan 1, 2019, 2:22:16 AM Last bumped on Jun 7, 2019, 12:52:29 AM
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huat
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nice build
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I'm playing a very similair build (tree is almost identical), and just killed uber elder for the first time, with it. And from my experience pierce is terrible for shattering steel. It seems an enemy can get hit by both the projectile and the cone (when it splits), and pierce removes this aspect.
And fork is your best friend. It helps a lot with clearing (feels better than pierce in my opinion), and the forked projectiles can for some reason hit the same enemy as the main projectile and the cone. I have better single target damage with fork equipped, than with slower projectiles, while PoB says it should do like 40-50% less damage. | |
" Ok, I realized I messed up my gem config, so I retested it in maps, and in lower acts. For some reason, Fork apparently does increase damage in some mysterious ways. I want to thank you for hightlighting and Flavourius in the PathOfExile discord for testing this with me to confirm yours and some of my own findings. Making some changes to this guide. Last edited by Vulpix0r on Dec 30, 2018, 3:23:50 AM
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I have made some changes to my guide. This should give way more damage which POB does not account for due to shotgunning. I will get a video up soon.
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i see u tried looking at my build or u wouldnt have thought of lioneyes vision
PS i didnt finish the build yet but u are all allowed tro do ur own thing with it so therefore u didnt copy me or offend me as i said do what u want with it i saw ur tree looks very much like the one i made for people but with ur own little change here and there | |
" I no longer have a Lioneye's Vision as it's sub-optimal, but the Lioneye's Vision was something I saw on reddit. The tree is similar to a few other people on poe.ninja top 50 shattering steel builds, so no, I didn't copy yours. | |
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Hi mate,
Thanks heaps for taking the time to write this guide for noobs like me :) I was wondering with the jewel sockets, would you mind giving a few other options? I know in your pastebin build, you have 2 listed, but I was wondering what you used for your 3rd? |
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" I'll elaborate in the guide what you need for your jewel. I kept the 3rd jewel socket empty for a reason, because it's up to you whether you want to invest in a nice Watcher Eye for Haste/Grace or another damage jewel. |
