[3.12] Scarfuncle's Shield Charge Berserker - Fast, Fun, All content viable, 30m+ DPS

Jan 13 2021 - GGG gave shield charge 10% more base damage and 40% more armour/evasion scaling damage. That's like adding another support gem. This is a buff! POB incoming ASAP.
Nov 21, 2020 - New POBs online. Helping Alira is better for us.
Nov 12, 2020 - Shaper video up to show bossing capability.
Nov 11, 2020 - Build guide published.

Pros
*Provides speed without compromising dps
*Mix and match playstyle provides flexibility for trying new things.
*Amazing speed through the acts. Rampage is so much fun!
*Can function entirely on rares making it excellent for a "craft-centric" league- absolutely SSF viable up to Elder and t16s.
*Can run on potato PCs. Good for parties since it doesn't fill the screen with crap.
*Basic gear is cheap because shield charge builds aren't common! The only required item is a high armour shield which you can make for 10c

Cons
*Some maps layouts just aren't made for Shield charge - we prefer straight shots (then again, most builds do).
*Can't run no leech maps. Doesn't like "less recovery" maps.
*Getting this close to enemies comes with risks. You have to learn to watch out for on death effects more than a projectile character does.
*The lack of spell block can lead to random one shots if you stand still too long. See the Gladiator version of this build to trade offense for defense.

You shield charge into stuff and hit them like a truck, exploding the packs. For clearing, you hold the button down and point your mouse in the direction of the enemies and it just zooms, popping and exploding packs as it goes!

For bosses, you use berserk, pop the flasks, and partner with your totem buddy and most things die within 5 seconds. Other options are vaal skills and tossing a banner down for a temporary boost.

The build primarily relies on Shield Charge, attack speed, Aura stacking, life, “More” physical damage, impale stacks, and scaling added physical damage and effect of non-curse auras. We don't use any elemental damage, spell damage, or damaging minions so avoid all these on your gear.

Shaper Deathless (No impale duration jewel) - https://youtu.be/jL6gY6mTlWI

Standard endgame clear - https://youtu.be/2j6Mk7wmtmY

Standard endgame clear (Headhunter delerium t16) - https://youtu.be/lDPOq6nuNZg

Baran A8 Map https://youtu.be/_l6XHAQr37o

The pastebin above is far more descriptive. For newer players who don't have Path of Building, or for those who just want a quick peek at what the common passives are, see these links:

Level 67 www.poeurl.com/c5L1
You will need a small respec between 66 and 90 in your ascendency
Level 94 www.poeurl.com/c5L2
The extra passives left over are for the cluster jewels.

Pain Reaver>Crave>Rite>Aspect of Carnage
Once you get a mana leech jewel and a cluster jewel with "Feed the Frenzy," drop Pain Reaver and get Flawless Savagery. Pain Reaver is really good for leveling.

Main Attack:

Shield charge requires a high armour shield and high attack speed to keep us zooming. High attack speed means impale is really good, so I recommend maxing chance to impale and using only physical damage because elemental and chaos cannot impale.

If you only have a five link, drop melee phys damage support.

Auras and Banners:

This build makes use of "increased effect of non-curse aura" mods, so we get a surprising amount of damage AND defense here. Dread banner is required for this build. We need that impale chance and effectiveness. We get about 151% increased Aura effectiveness, which means when the banner is planted the "enemies have 21% less accuracy rating" balloons to the point where a full banner gives 56% chance to avoid melee/projectiles. It adds about 10 million damage in POB to boot. All this for a mere 7% reserved mana.


Precision is necessary so we can hit stuff. Level it as high as your mana reserves will allow you to go. If you are rich, get the alt quality version that reserves less mana.


Blood and Sand/Flesh and stone add lots of DPS for barely any investment. More DPS means more stuns and leech which makes your offense start to feel like a defense.


Herald of Purity synergizes with Circle of Guilt to add so much damage. The little minions add entertainment value


Pride is the last aura you should get since it takes so much to reserve. It is a secret weapon against bosses. It adds 17 million damage once you can afford a watcher's eye with "Impales you inflict last # additional Hits while using Pride," but a watcher's eye with the "double damage" mod is a budget alternative.


Utilities:


Blood rage grants us frenzy charges and life leech which combines with Soul Tether/immortal ambition to provides us a way to counter the rage degeneration that berserkers all deal with. The extra attack speed blood rage gives shouldn't be underestimated. The new quality version that gives a chance for frenzies on unique enemies is recommended for bosses.


Cast When Damage Taken Immortal call is much better than it looks on paper. I tried molten shell, but I recommend immortal call. I also link CWDT to blood rage.


Berserk is self-explanatory. It is used for ending bosses quickly.


Enduring Cry is an excellent skill for combating the degeneration AND it gets you endurance charges too. If you have never used it, please try it.


Vaal Grace looks unimpressive, but it is amazing. It benefits from our aura effectiveness and an increased duration gem to give 68% chance to dodge attacks AND spells for 12.5 seconds. Considering all the other defenses we have, this makes you invincible anytime you use it.


Ancestral Warchief gives about 16% more damage and serves as a distraction to bosses and a utility for getting through the lab. No links needed. You can even run a vaal version for more damage, but I prefer to save my souls for Vaal grace.


Leap slam and portal are just good to have :)

The POB includes phase run. I have learned to really love this skill and it provides a nice boost to speed, damage, and defense. Use it!

Curses

vulnerability is really good, but I really advise getting it as a glove corrupt. Assassin's mark and enfeeble are good second curses. Punishment is good if you want good clear. The curse on hit works well with the "evil eye" passive on the medium cluster jewel to instantly blind stuff.

If you can't afford any of that, try Reckoning, hextouch, vulnerability.

Leveling Skills

Note on Shield charge Keybind

Acts 1-10

A note for players doing this as a leaguestart- Like most melee builds, this one can be a rough leaguestart. It kicks into gear once you ascend around level 35. If you don't give up, you will be rewarded!


For your first attack skill, get Cleave from the quest to use until we get shield charge at level 10. This rapier type of sword with Cleave (lvl 1) combined with onslaught (lvl 4) provides the speediest rise to level 10.




At level 4, pick up Blood and Sand. You can abandon cleave for shield charge at level 10. Grab a Saber weapon for extra accuracy.



Grab War banner for passive accuracy. You can toss the flag down, but I never do.

Grab Ancestral protector (level 4) and use it for bosses. Standing near it gives you more attack speed. Decoy totem is actually really good for these starting levels too!


Once you’re level 10, start using shield dash immediately. At this point, your weapon's damage no longer matters - your shield's armour/evasion become your "weapon." See the equipment sections for more on this, but basically look for high armour on your shields.

Early links you should consider for shield charge are Onslaught (Level 1) and Maim (Level 8). You may be tempted by elemental skills like added fire or lightning damage support, but get used to not using any elemental damage. Later we lose all ability to do elemental damage, so don’t put a lot of time or currency into anything elemental.

Grab Leap Slam at level 10. It’s useful for clearing gaps. After the caged brute quest, you can use precision if it is for sale at the vendor. If not, get someone to buy it for you and start leveling it.

At level 20, consider Melee Physical Damage (Level 18), faster attacks (Level 18) for shield charge. Get culling strike or close combat (18) for your ancestral totem/riposte/reckoning.




Flesh and Stone is also available (16) but I find that it cuts into the mana supply this early in the game. If you are doing good on mana, remember to link maim to flesh and stone and it will provide a great boost to your damage.


Blood rage (16) is really good, despite the life drain. I put mine on left click and it just casts when I walk until I can get Cast when Damage taken at level 38. Blood rage grants a nice speed and leech boost. It speeds things up greatly when leveling.

At level 17, Pick up an "Aurumvorax" sword. It's cheap because no one wants it. Playing solo self found, I sometimes get one from Einhar's beasts in the menagerie. You can use this sword through the acts if you want.

Act II Bandits

At level 24, drop War Banner for Dread Banner

At level 28, drop Ancestral protector for Ancestral Warchief.


Impale Support – level 31. Pulverise is also an excellent alternative that grants good AOE. It pairs well with Blood rage if you’re using that.


At level 38, pick up Brutality. It adds a lot of damage to shield charge.

At level 38, I recommend a Cast When Damage taken>Blood rage>immortal call>vulnerability. drop vulnerability once you get it as glove corrupt



As you approach level 66, you will gain access to the -mana cost crafts for your jewelry. Look for reputable crafters in the POE forums who will add this for you for free.


Once you have -mana cost to non-channelled skils, your mana should barely move when you use shield charge. It’s safe to use the pride aura (24) at this point.

Once you find yourself with extra slots, consider vaal grace. It can take a lot of dex, but it is worth it. DON'T RESERVE THE GRACE AURA.

Leveling Gear


At level 17 you can start using Auremvorax. No one likes this sword so it is cheap. I have used this to level through all 10 acts in SSF. It is amazing.


Use any Armour/Evasion/Armour-evasion shield until level 20. Then, get The Deep One's Hide.


Grab a belt of the deceiver starting at level 20. It's good enough to get you though 10 acts.


At level 30, get Titucius' Span. Ride that shield until level 51.

At level 34ish, you should be finishing up act 3. Time to ascend. This is when things get fun. You'll be taking Pain Reaver ascendency for that sweet mana leech. You'll spec out of it after act 10 though.

Once you're ascended, take a minute to get new gear.


At level 33, get the Deidbellow. It may cost like 10c early league, but you can buy the dying cry prophecy and start using it in act 3. It is incredible and could be an end game helm if it just had life on it. If you can't afford that, look for The Gull helmet.

If mana starts being an issue, there are mana great uniques you can buy for super cheap.



At level 46, 4 linking a Belly of the Beast will get you up to level 62 when you can pick up a 5L Carcass Jack. We choose Carcass Jack over Bronn's Lithe because Bronn’s has a high dexterity cost. The lack of life and resists on Bronn's doesn’t do it any favors either. Rare armour works great as well.

At level 51, buy a rare Girded Tower Shield with the highest armour you can afford. If it is league start, you may have to make your own. Remember you can craft armour and increased armour on your shields. This is the best base for your level.






At level 67, repeat the process with Colossal Tower Shield. This is your new favorite type of shield since it has the highest armour potential. Buy one with ilvl 86+ as they offer the highest potential armour rolls.

After speaking with many new players, a common mistake is to assume unique shields are the best. any rare shield over 2000 armour is stronger than all unique shields. Don't be fooled - uniques aren't the best shield for you.


Leveling tips

Here are your major priorities once you start mapping:

1) If you're new, see this guide to how to do your atlas for maximum efficiency
2) Get max elemental resists and 4k life as soon as possible. Time to buy new gear!
3) Buy 14+ quality versions of all the gems that you can, starting with the ones linked to shield charge. The best time to do this is right after you upgrade your shield so you don't notice the initial dps drop from leveling a gem from level 1.
4) Go to Global chat room 820 and look for trials so you can do the Eternal Labyrinth (Aka uber lab)
5) Buy a cheap 6 link body armour. My favorite thing to do is get a corrupt one with lots of red links and low enough int and dex that I can wear it.
6) Work toward getting 117 dexterity for Ichimonji, your weapon.
7) Work toward getting rings with non-channelling skills have -9 total mana cost. Once you get these, you should easily be able to reserve 90% of your mana and sustain your attacks.
8) Follow the shield guide here to build yourself a good one so you can keep your dps high.
9) Boots with movement speed, life on all of your rares, and keeping your resists max while inching your chaos resists up. Use those jewel sockets to fill the gaps.
10) Remember that you can respec and that you don't have to follow the tree exactly.

See below for specific gearing growth recommendations.

Helmet
Shield
Weapon

Body Armour
Gloves
Boots
Jewelry
Belt
Jewels

Soul of Lunaris and Gruthkul for clearing, Soul of Solaris and Ryslatha for big bosses like shaper and Sirus.

I am not God's gift to POE – I am 100% sure someone reading this guide could improve on this build. That’s what’s so exciting about it – it’s pretty uncharted territory here. Ideas I’ve had to add more dps are:

•Adding aspect of the spider by using -reserved mana shenanigans or affording Aul’s uprising’s for free pride.
•Crafting a weapon that is better than Ichimonji. I can barely make one in Path of Building much less find one in the markets. If you find something better, please let me know!
•There is nothing that says we HAVE to use brutality. If you slot Conc effect or pulverize instead, you could take advantage of any gear that gains elemental or chaos damage as a % of your physical damage. Atziri’s promise and taste of hate become excellent under these conditions.
•Making a templar version of shield charge and going elemental.

Shield Charge Gladiator
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2868085