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PoE 2 Build

Stun Lock Bosses with Shield Charge

0.2 DotH
presentationWarrior
presentationSmith of Kitava
End Game
Verified
Updated on Jun 4, 2025
Jun 4, 2025

Build Overview

Shield Charge is one of the hardest hitting abilities in the game, while also requiring no resources or long cooldowns. When you scale this ability as pure physical damage it gets insane bonuses to light stun. Light stun INTERRUPTS boss abilities, and we can spam this ability constantly, keeping bosses from doing almost any of their attacks.

Another good thing about being pure physical damage and hitting VERY hard is that leech will send you to 100% health almost immediately, and when combined with Fast Metabolism you are almost unkillable besides 1 shots most of the time.

This is mainly a bossing build but it has acceptable clear, it isn't Lightning Spear or Siege Cascade but it does good work with Resonating Shield and Herald of Ash.

Right now there are not a ton of ways to scale useful damage in the game, The Deepest Tower is currently one of the few that exists and it works extremely well with the placement of the Warrior on the tree. We are close to Stars Aligned which is one of the most powerful nodes in the game when combined with The Deepest Tower.

Build Variants

Endgame version is capable of:

T15/16 +1 Juiced Mapping with all league mechanics
+4 of all pinnacle bosses (only did +2 Ash man cause citadels never spawn :)
+4 Simulacrum is possible but not great as you have to micromanage your heavy stun bar and are at the mercy of certain combos of mods being bad. Ex. Extra Damage + Penetration.

Use the version to the right of Endgame to level the build up from scratch, it is late in the league and this isn't a league start guide so I am assuming you have a little bit of currency, if not it should still somewhat function.

Equipment

item
3
item
6
item
1
item
5
item
8
item
6
item
4
item
9
item
2
item
10
item
11
item
13
item
14
item
15
item
12
item
item
item
Equipment Priority
0
Helmet
The Deepest Tower
1
Belt
Infernoclasp
2
Main Hand
Solemn Maul
3
Off Hand
Vaal Tower Shield
4
Body
Ornate Plate
5
Left Ring
Ruby Ring
6
Right Ring
Ruby Ring
7
Amulet
Amber Amulet
8
Gloves
Vaal Mitts
9
Boots
Ornate Greaves
10
flask1
Ultimate Life Flask
11
flask2
Ultimate Mana Flask
12
charm1
Thawing Charm
13
charm2
Golden Charm
14
charm3
Ngamahu's Chosen

For your weapon prioritize getting +7 melee skills, it can be difficult to get one of these with low enough STR requirements so feel free to go for +6 if that makes it easier, it isn't a huge amount of damage and you can scale later.

Ornate Plate is definitely the best, quality and try to corrupt for 3 sockets. We use a white chest piece because of our ascendancy nodes.

The Deepest Tower enables us to do HUGE damage and get our light stuns on bosses off more frequently. The Bear Talisman is replaceable if you need more resist or strength.

If you manage to hit 90% resists without Infernoclasp you can use a rare belt or even Ryslatha's Coil but that will be hard to fit most likely.

For your shield, you want as much armour as possible as this scales our damage. Block chance is useful but definitely secondary. Maximum fire res as well as physical damage reduction and chaos res are useful here as well.

Make sure your Ultimate Mana Flask has increased charges, that is the only useful mod as we take Blood Magic. We use these to help shock with Shield Wall by using Ambrosia.

Ngamahu's Chosen is very useful as we consume a decent amount of rage, we also take physical damage as fire so it should proc relatively often.

Skill Gems

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 90

Dex 35

Int 35

Expand all
1

Resonating Shield

Resonating Shield
supportreachplayer
supportheftplayer
supportfasterattackplayer
supportmobilityplayer
supportbrutalityplayer
2

Shield Charge

Shield Charge
supportexecuteplayer
supportexploitweaknessplayer
supportmeleephysicaldamageplayer
supportclosecombatplayer
supportconcentratedeffectplayer
3

Shield Wall

Shield Wall
supportambrosiaplayer
supportchancetoshockplayer
supportaddedlightningdamageplayer
supportphysicalmasteryplayer
supportstormfireplayer
4

Infernal Cry

Infernal Cry
supportempowereddamageplayer
supportragingcryplayer
supportcooldownreductionplayer
supportenragedwarcryplayer
supportdazingcryplayer
5

Leap Slam

Leap Slam
supportholydescentplayer
supportunabatingplayer
supportunyieldingplayer
supportrallyplayer
6

Magma Barrier

Magma Barrier
supportaddedfiredamageplayer
supportfirepenetrationplayer
supportelementalfocusplayer
supportfiremasteryplayer
supportretaliateplayer
7

Herald of Ash

Herald of Ash
supportincreasedareaofeffectplayer
supportcannibalismplayer
8

Scavenged Plating

Scavenged Plating
moredurationsupportplayer
9

Berserk

Berserk
Gem Priority
+32

Standard combo for killing enemies is Resonating Shield until armour is broken -> Infernal Cry -> Shield Charge

There is a strange interaction with Resonating Shield where if you tap it with correct timing it hits WAY faster than normal, this will change depending on skill speed and such so figure out the timing for your character. This is also beneficial because Magma Barrier only happens AS you raise your shield so it will enable this as well. But you can also be lazy and just hold it, I do a lot of the time :)

We are using Exploit Weakness on our Shield Charge so you will want to use Resonating Shield to break the enemy armour and then consume it dealing massive damage.

Shield Wall can consume our Infernal Cry stacks which is fine, just be careful if you don't have a ton as it can eat up charges for Shield Charge. Use this skill to shock which will help light stun tough bosses.

Passive Tree

main:
123
123
set 1:
20
20
set 2:
20
20

Get Smith's Masterwork and whichever nodes help you the most while leveling, I personally took Leather Bindings and Support Straps followed by Molten Symbol and Kitavan Engraving. After you have these you can take Coal Stoker and Forged in Flame. I swapped Support Straps for Tantalum Alloy towards late game.

If you need more strength for your weapon swap Kitavan Engraving for Support Straps.

As for the tree I suggest rushing towards Resolute Technique and then Blood Magic to make leveling easier. Try to find any mace with + to level of melee skills, and when you are able to equip a +6 or +7 2h grab Giant's Blood.

Beyond this the priority list for which nodes to take is as follows:

  1. Low Life Damage Nodes if you have The Deepest Tower
  2. Strength/Dex/Int to equip your gear/skills
  3. Damage nodes if you're lacking damage
  4. Leech nodes
  5. Defensive nodes
  6. Max Res nodes

Atlas Tree

Atlas Tree selector isn't working for some reason, Seeking/Researcher/Energetic Resonance

Most of my time on this build was spent farming pinnacle bosses, you can definitely map but it isn't as good of money as just blasting pinnacles.

While leveling you don't have to take Ecological Shift if you just want to blast maps, it is very useful for farming strongboxes though. Most of my money while mapping comes from researchers and large strongboxes.

The King in the Mists

Don't facetank his big slam when he shines red, once your gear/damage is good enough you can easily interrupt these abilities with Infernal Cry + Shield Charge. With better gear you can survive this most of the time, but no reason to tempt fate.

Phase 1: Blast him with damage, whenever he goes up top to the totems just shield charge them to kill them and then go back to blasting him. This phase should be super simple as long as you don't facetank a bunch of slams.

Phase 2: Follow the wisps to find the exit.

Phase 3: If you're geared just straight up facetank him and slam him with Infernal Cry empowered Shield Walls and Shield Charges. Leech will keep you alive but still don't go out of your way to facetank either of his slams in this phase.

Xesht

The hardest part of this fight is actually getting to him. Clearing out a +4 breach is relatively tough if you aren't very proactive. Make sure you are tapping Resonating Shield to proc Magma Barrier consistently and always moving forward, rolling past small enemies. Use Shield Charge to kill blue packs and yellow mobs, as well as to move quickly through the zone. I consistently have around 5-10s left when I reach the end depending on how kind GGG was with density per map.

This boss is VERY easy if you interrupt him when he starts summoning the hands, he will do a big charge up with a purple icon above his head, if you use all your cooldowns and light stun him during this phase he will never use the hands again. Use Infernal Cry -> Shield Wall -> Shield Charge and this will stun him MOST of the time, it doesn't always work as sometimes he just doesn't want to get stunned. Expect that GGG will fix this interaction at some point, you can still blast this guy super fast and just use flasks to survive the hands so it isn't a huge deal.

The smack down ability can kill you.

Simulacrum

This encounter is relatively difficult on +4 because of the Heavy Stun mechanic, whenever you are using Resonating Shield it counts as having your shield up and has you block everything. This also enables you to be heavy stunned, which the monsters will do very quickly. If you get heavy stunned, you are dead. You just need to keep an eye on the little bar above your health and mana flask and if that gets too high, move around and don't hold your shield up long enough for it to empty.

Also towards the later levels you are at the mercy of the RNG on waves, if you get damage + ele pen on wave 15 you are most likely dead, GGG is nerfing ele pen at some point which will make this more doable.

Focus on using the Resonating Shield quirk where if you tap it at the right speed it happens more frequently and move away from the enemies constantly in a circle. Use Shield Charge empowered by Infernal Cry to kill yellows and the bosses, as well as large packs. Shield Wall can be helpful to give you some space as well.

Olroth

Not really farmable so you will most likely only fight him a few times for the points. He was an absolute pushover for me as I just interrupted every single ability. Don't stand in the bad stuff and just blast him, it really is that simple.

Arbiter of Ash

This fight is a skill check, we do tons of damage and do interrupt him quite a bit but he has a lot of phases where he just goes immune or unable to be targeted.

During the phase where he is dropping orbs for you to stand under, save your Shield Charge for when he puts them VERY far apart. Leap Slam is also an option but it is a little slow.

Breach

Always try to do your breach with shrines, particularly Acceleration Shrines, they make getting 50+ splinters super easy. Careful of the laser beams and the big fire orbs.

Delirium

Run through the mirror at the start, kill as much as you can, focusing on just getting to the league mechanics, don't stress the delirium mirror too much tbh, just clear efficiently like you normally would.

Strongboxes

I Alch + Exalt Researchers and Large Strongboxes until I get Rarity + Quant + Additional Mobs
I Alch Armor and Weapon Strongboxes to see if they roll Quality, if so I will exalt for quant, otherwise I don't open them.
I ignore all other strongboxes besides unique ones.

Strongboxes can be very dangerous with their damage mods, particularly lightning storm and ice spears. You can roll through the chaos projectiles to avoid them.

Essences

Essences I always corrupt unless they have one of the very expensive essences already on them. These typically die instantly but if you get a really tanky one be careful of ground effects.

Expedition

Expedition I use the big boom and just don't take phys immune and focus on logbook nodes and then flags/chests.

Ritual

Rituals I ignore completely because that mechanic is awful.

Azmeri Spirit

Ignore unless it is Orange or going in the exact direction you are going.

How it Plays

Mapping

Use Resonating Shield to kill most enemies, tapping it to proc Magma Barrier. Shield Charge rare monsters, and for very tough rares and bosses break their armour with Resonating Shield, use Infernal Cry before Shield Charge.

Bossing

Use Resonating Shield to break their armour, Infernal Cry and then Shield Charge. If the enemy is very tough and you need to interrupt an important ability use Shield Wall to shock them before Shield Charge. The Leech from Shield Charge is insane so you can use it to survive and heal yourself.

Changelog

6/2/25 - Initial Draft Complete

Video Guide

Table of Contents

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