[3.25 READY] Versatile Combatant Impale Shield Crush - Crush the Atlas - SSF Compatible

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Eclaer wrote:

Shield charge has received a very big damage buff. I progressed further in the atlas and my shield charge has become far more powerful, I considered dropping advancing fortress & giving shield charge its own 4L on my helmet or even investing a lot of my savings into a great 5L gloves for it. I dropped SST completely, its nice being able to hit targets from a far & everything but I use shield charge & shield crush to kill tougher rares etc. It has far more damage than shield charge because of the shotgun, and its just easier to hold an attack to burst things down than press in a small area countless times when you conditioned yourself to click towards long distances with shield charge.

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AdioGG wrote:

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Eclaer wrote:

Shield charge has received a very big damage buff. I progressed further in the atlas and my shield charge has become far more powerful, I considered dropping advancing fortress & giving shield charge its own 4L on my helmet or even investing a lot of my savings into a great 5L gloves for it. I dropped SST completely, its nice being able to hit targets from a far & everything but I use shield charge & shield crush to kill tougher rares etc. It has far more damage than shield charge because of the shotgun, and its just easier to hold an attack to burst things down than press in a small area countless times when you conditioned yourself to click towards long distances with shield charge.

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curious what your passive tree looks like if your build is like this guy and you aren't using impale? mind sharing?

definitely looking to switch over to lifetap on my shield crush since mana management is actually so unreasonable right now even with the full 0.8% leech.

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@OMFGaTaco

Currently doing Yellowish T6-T9 maps. My only problem right now is not sure where to go with the skill tree :P How was the petrified blood that you tested out? Also do you think Haemophilias serve any other purpose than exploding corpses?

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11elf11 wrote:

Hey your build looks very good i will test it in Standard.

A Question about the Shield . I have allways play my max Block Gladi with the Surrender , is this shield ok for this build ?

I will wait a few Days and then Start it in Standard

Thanks for the build and Good Luck

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Agent_HX wrote:

@OMFGaTaco

Now that we know the enchantments for Shield Crush, did you change your opinion on what we should run on our helmet?

The "Shield Crush central wave has 24% more Area of Effect" sounds interesting, as it makes it easier to shotgun enemies with the attack.

The other two are the usual 40% increased Damage and 15% increased Attack Speed.

Additionaly, would it be worth to replace one of the gems with Empower, as the scaling goes to 5 to 7 at lvl23.

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AdioGG wrote:

I realize you were speaking to OP but I wanted to clarify that I wasn't talking about the damage chart in PoB, I'm aware that Shield Crush isn't available in the damage calculations there yet.

When I was talking about my damage, I meant my experience in the game was that my damage and ability to clear zones nearly doubled when I swapped out Shield Crush for Shield Charge, given the exact same support gem setup on a 5L.

I haven't yet optimized my gear for attack speed scaling, nor leveled my gems to max, but I imagine that wouldn't change too much about the effectiveness gap between the two skills.

With the recent buffs to Shield Charge and its damage ramp on distance, it just seems like the better main skill for any shield-based builds. Damage is higher, speed of the ability is faster and it has movement utility, and the AOE spread is about the same size. I can't see yet why anyone would prefer Shield Crush.

Obviously I'll hold out til the PoB updates, but from what I'm seeing I won't be surprised if Shield Crush is somewhat underwhelming. Happy to hear thoughts from OP though.