[3.7] Pillar of Caged Might. 1800 Strength, 11k ES Tanky Destroyer

Shaper Full Clear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afn4k9Ng8lA

Hydra Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbRjXCbd5yQ

Gear Breakdown

Weapon
Pillar of the caged god. Turns Strength & Dex into damage stats and Int into AOE. What the build is built around

Chest
Geofri's Sanctuary turns strength into flat ES. Makes strength our source of defense

Gloves
Turns Strength into %ES for better scaling. Turns strength into mana which is converted into further ES via guardian. Completes the package. Curse on hit is good damage

Belt
The string with 18% Str and Int is hard to beat. Cyclopeon coil gives ignite immunity but less ES and dmg since the %inc damage is drops in the bucket at that point. Some rares can roll good enough with %attributes + strength + resistances but its hard

Boots
18% Str again. Hard to beat that for this slot both for dmg and ES

Rings
These slots are heavily relied on for good resistances. Strength is a must too. Flat physical damage to attacks a bonus for good extra damage. Further investment in resistances elsewhere would see these turning into steel rings or corrupted 6% increased strength ones

Amulet
Astramentis is a good placeholder but should eventually be replaced with a three rats talisman. Strength, flat physical damage here too. Some resistances would also make gearing easier

Helmet
Highest ES you can buy with room to craft resistances or Strength

Gearing
Weapon, Chest, Belt, Gloves and Boots are all 1c costs that won't hurt the budget so you have more to invest in the other slots. I recommend covering resistances first and ignoring more luxury stats and then you can buy upgrades as you go

Guardian
Core of the build is Radiant Faith which turns mana into flat ES letting the character avoid ES nodes from the tree

Unwavering Crusade gives 40% AOE which is very helpful since we don't want to waste points getting all the weapon specific area from the tree.

Harmony of Purpose maintains constant uptime of all charge types on bosses which is good since I don't consider just blood rage to be reliable. The endurance charges gives us a nice immortal call as well

Champion
I was tempted by champion for better impale and flat physical but even though it has much better damage it misses so much defense and utility. The guardians free 40% AOE means you'd need to find extra AOE elsewhere. Champ also would probably have mana problems since it doesn't want to get all the mana nodes so it would need to invest in a -mana cost ring.

Bleed and Freeze immunity are needed. Quicksilver and Silver help clearspeed. Lions Roar is good extra damage. Curse immunity for annoying curse maps

Normal Jewels
Search for jewels with 3 good stats. This build has many relevant stats which makes jewels cheaper
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/jZbwJbTX

I picked up several with resistances on them to make gearing my other item slots easier



This build also takes 2 or 3 Inertia Jewels to convert the right hand side of the tree into strength. I currently use 2 for better damage but the 3rd would give better ES


Legion Jewel


Lethal Pride
These are a bit of a gamble as you need to buy one, put it into the tree and see what it gives then sell it and buy a new one to try again. I found 2 good ones after testing 5 as there is quite a few ways it can be good.

The "conquered by Karui" line refers to keystone stuff which this build doesn't use so the line can be ignored and you just buy the cheapest ones

The jewel should be placed in the Marauder section just below Stamina and then you check all the notables it encircles and hope some have "5% increased Strength" or "+20 to strength" or "5% chance to do double damage"

Best notables to hit are Diamond Skin, Butchery or Utmost Might as they are already part of the build.

Lust for Carnage, Strong Arm or Stamina would become worth taking if they rolled one of these too

Each jewel has 6 chances for a good thing to be added onto it, hopefully you get more then 1 but since it adds strength onto all the minor nodes in the radius it'll be worth using if you hit almost anything good on any of the notables.

There is another 3 notables of Barbarism, Juggernaut and Magnetic strikes in range. These all take 2 points and don't naturally give anything good so are only worth considering if they roll "5% increased strength". Even then only really worth taking post lvl 90 after the rest of the build is filled in.

Links

My Lvl 92 Tree
www.poeurl.com/ct6z

https://pastebin.com/u9keX0pr

This tree is filled with good things the build wants so its very hard to make cuts. The easiest cut is probably the far left jewel socket as it takes the most points to reach.

I would leave the impale nodes until last, they are good damage but the only nodes that don't give ES and its good to get that total up

Soul is steel is tempting for resistances but hard to fit in. Retribution is great value for both damage and defense and what I would pick up next. Written in blood has great ES per point.

Cyclone

This is the core 4

Pulverise is the best clear and what I use. Rage is best DPS so long as you have 25 or more rage which should be maintainable. Either can be replaced by melee phys or on full life for reliable high damage gem. ES leech is swapped in for maps that prevent you using blood rage which is the normal source of leech.

Aura

Main 3 with lvl 3 enlighten to lower their reservation. Until you have this your flesh and stone won't be able to be paired with maim

The rest. They go around where they fit

Movement Skill

Leap slam is all that works with staves but its fast. Can be hard to get green and red sockets.

Utility

I like Immortal call for lowering incoming damage regularly. Iron Skin also works.


Good attack speed and source of leech. Increased duration might not be needed but I can forget and let it run out in phase bosses sometimes.


Drop for attack speed boost on bosses. Would like to pair this with multiple totems but hard to fit that in.

Soul of Lunaris for movement speed and chain immunity once upgraded

Soul of Garukhan for movement speed once upgraded

Skill
Ground Slam generally feels better then cyclone before you have AOE.
Double Strike + Ancestral Call + Melee Splash is also a good option

Since you level as a Life based character you can level Discipline in offhand gear. Flash and Stone also doesn't need to be used until real lategame when you have the aura nodes and enlighten

Gear
Good leveling Gear




Tree

www.poeurl.com/cuuq

Here is a leveling Tree where I've removed all extra damage nodes you get in endgame and focused on travelling/Strength and picking up a few life nodes.

The aim of the character is to survive and clear at decent speed but to get up to CI at level 66 so you can swap right into ES once you can wear the chest and gloves which give the ES scaling.

Bandits
Kill all

Ascendency
1st is Radient Crusade for some extra flat phys damage and 10% more dmg.
2nd is Radient Faith. This will give you the big ES boost when you swap into ES later
3rd is Unwavering Crusade. The extra AOE will make cyclone feel better
4th is Harmony of Purpose to generate charges of all types and improve tank/dmg