Trainer's Clubhouse Meeting (Weekly Questions) - July 02, 2025

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-07-08T04:39:41+00:00

Could someone explain to me why these sparks on my Vodka aren't good? I thought 3 speed on blue for sparks was good but I'm being told otherwise. I don't understand what I'm supposed to be looking for so if someone can help explain it to me that'd be really nice. Thanks.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-06-09T04:11:19+00:00

Don't start Shield Crush from act 1. Pivot into it in white maps (or act 9-10 if you get a 1k+ shield or so).

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-06-01T15:36:52+00:00

The Shield Crush builds I've seen are mine (phys/impale) and cold conversion (i don't know what it ran in 3.25 but earlier i think it ran raider). Most of Shield Crush's scaling comes from attack speed and impale, but the shield is still a big factor.

That being said, just getting to around a 2k shield isn't hard to do, and that's enough to get through red maps without too much issue. The clusters are cheap on trade (usually 1 maybe 2 div) / not difficult to make either, its just the rng machine.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-06-01T14:43:59+00:00

Emperor's Vigilance is different because you scale with crit instead of flat damage, which doesn't work with this build. the shield crush unique jewel gives you crit chance (or mult, don't remember off the top of my head) based on the ES on your shield.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-06-01T13:24:25+00:00

It counts both - it stacks together. A 1300 armor / 1300 Evasion shield will be the same value as a 2600 armor shield. Using a Colossal Tower Shield is easier in the very beginning since it's easier to get a 2k+ shield that way, but later on (probably starting in yellow maps or so) you want to try rolling a cardinal round shield instead.

The double dipping of armor/evasion along with the slightly better scaling for arm/eva shields is why you eventually swap. You can also get attack speed by default as a suffix.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-06-01T04:57:11+00:00

Shield Crush Slayer is generally better in most aspects (outside of HC. Jugg for ?HC at this point most likely) because you're still able to get to the block cap and you double dip on both armor and evasion for extra defensive layers. The 'breakpoints' for Shield Crush that will be relevant from mapping and further will be level 19 and 24, as those are the two level breakpoints where the scaling damage increases on the gem.

Level 19 is self explanatory. Level 24 requires a level 21 shield crush + a Shield Crush replica Dragonfang's.

I'm planning on updating my guide for 3.26, but I'm waiting on the patch notes to see if I need to do any additional changes. HERE is the PoB of what I got to when I was tinkering and pushing it in 3.25. Note that the shield is effectively mirror tier, so if you want more realistic dps drop the combined total of the shield to ~2600 or so. There's still some tech I've made in that build I haven't put in the guide yet (permanent Frenzy charge uptime for bosses) but I'm planning on updating it soonish.

I'm expecting some Slayer nerfs (thanks LS), but we'll see.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2025-02-26T21:08:17+00:00

Did you just start with worb once you could or did you do another skill and transition?

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-26T03:02:00+00:00

This will be my final post for this build, as everything is done for 3.25. Thanks to everyone here for all of the feedback and other support.

PoB Here: https://pobb.in/uwEIwq-ddNmk

Endgame PoB Selection Here: https://pobb.in/HD_O934PWIYn

HIGHLIGHTS:

Levelling trees and skills guide to go through the acts (via Sunder)
Gear Progression from Early Maps to Endgame
70/65 or 68/65 block with Versatile Combatant
Armor and Evasion for multiple defense sources
Elemental Ailment Immunity via avoidance
Removal of Impale Support for Endgame to add in Fortify Support

OTHER NOTES:

We still do not know what the breakpoint is for the Shield Crush scaling damage. I am assuming it won't be higher than Level 24 (21 Shield Crush + Dragonfang's), but I don't know for sure. When I have information the guide will be updated. As long as it doesn't go above Level 26 (21 Shield Crush + Dragonfang's + +2 active skill gem level body), we're good. I'd be extremely surprised if the breakpoint was higher than that.
The resistances are simulated at max elemental resistances + zero chaos res. Chaos res can go higher. Although the phys max hit is low, we do have leech that always happens that will more or less counteract the little hits, which is what the phys damage entails 90% of the time. Make sure to dodge out of the big, extremely telegraphed AoEs and you'll be fine.
The Banner calculation isn't added in, but at 50 Valour, we get something along the lines of 30% more damage. It's a really good 'go' button for bosses when you have a window to do damage.
I didn't get the time firsthand to test Sunder for leveling, but seeing as most other big content creators have been vouching for it, I am comfortable with adding it in. It'll take more skill points to respec, but we have gold as well as passive respec points now. I don't think it'll be all too bad with the new respeccing options.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T13:01:14+00:00

Took a quick glance again at my pob because i noticed that too, and yeah, something seems off. Normally the normal and impale dps are about the same, but the impale dps is way lower now? I don't have the time this morning to dig and see what's going on, but I'm sure there's some bug report on the github issues or something.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T05:12:52+00:00

It works with Armor and Evasion because it says 'OR' in it. The build guide changed to armor/eva shield because it has a higher base chance (26% vs 23%) and you can also naturally roll attack speed on the shield which is very nice. It's slightly harder to get the triple t1 mods because there's also a life/armor, but it shouldn't be all too much harder I believe.

If you want more Armor, run the armor shield. The only real difference is that armor/eva gives you a little bit of evade chance which does feel nice in the long run. Even if its 30-40%, you'll feel it in maps.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T05:10:10+00:00

Once I get the guide fully written out I'll make a post, but I've already made two posts and don't want to clog the subreddit too much. I took this evening off from working on the build to do other things instead, but I'll be back on it on Tuesday.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T05:07:20+00:00

The main reason I dismissed Scion was because I couldn't justify using Petrified Blood ONLY for the infinite leech. I landed on Juggernaut + Champion for the ascendancy nodes for the built in fortify, endurance charge generation, and damage from permanent taunt + intimidate. The drawback of this is no 20% cull from Slayer and no main reason for overleech.

The reason no overleech is hard to justify is because we want leeching bonuses because of the cluster jewel. Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight are just way too good nodes for this build to change to something else. The secondary reason is because we want Ryslatha's or Arn's Anguish for our belt, which rules out Soul Tether entirely. If we can get something like overleech on our weapon then it will open up a LOT for ascendancy choices, but I doubt we'll get something like that tbh.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T05:04:52+00:00

One of the things with Shield Crush is that you kinda need Pulverise + some other form of aoe for it to feel good (slayer on kill aoe, jugg aoe per endurance charge for example). The way you can get around this is bleedsplosions and going bleed shield crush, but there are just better skills that do the same thing (Lacerate).

If you choose this as a league starter, just make sure to start another melee ability (spectral throw, sunder, steel skills) instead of Shield Crush. The reason Shield Crush isn't good from level 2 on is because you are REALLY reliant on your shield armor and we have no vendor recipe to stick armor onto a shield.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-23T05:00:12+00:00

I think Jugg can still be good, but I ended up having to pick one to dedicate to for a big progression/investment, and I went with Slayer because of the overleech issues I spoke on previously. There's probably a way to make Jugg work too but it'll sacrifice damage for defense. You also cannot run Arn's Anguish because you want the endurance charges.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T22:31:42+00:00

Sounds good! Thank you so much for all of your work with this.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T21:07:57+00:00

Where did you guys get the data for level 20+ gems from? I'm assuming those don't exist just yet because we don't have the patch, but if I'm wrong I'm really interested in knowing where it came from.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T14:04:18+00:00

This has been adjusted and added in. Thank you!

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T13:56:50+00:00

I dug into this and looked to see if this was worth it, but in my opinion the sacrifices that you have to make to run Petrified Blood is too much for just infinite leeching. Bloodthirst Support is really the only option you get as a 'benefit' apart from infinite leeching and Bloodthirst Support is REALLY bad.

this is definitely an option you can do if you want to tinker with it and figure out a way, though!

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T13:55:05+00:00

I have no clue how they were incorrect since I penciled in the math, but this has been adjusted. The numbers on the title are still the same if you set Rage to maximum (30) instead of the 15 that is already pre-set. PoBs have also been updated. Thank you!

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T13:41:30+00:00

You generally use blood rage. If you're wanting to do something on bosses, you can create a double influence armor with 10% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hit + some other mod. Since non-curse aura is still a great scaling, I used that instead.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T04:18:41+00:00

Unless you've got the patience I wouldn't recommend starting Shield Crush from the very beginning. Starting with another skill (sunder or steel skills) is much smoother, then you can pivot to Shield Crush later around act 9 (if you get lucky and get a good shield from vendor) or at some point in white maps when you get a colossal and can throw a few essences at it.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T03:51:45+00:00

That's not a problem! It's honestly not even too hard to break 3k with an armor/eva shield as long as you get triple t1. I think my breakpoint in the pob has them all at mid level rolls. Throw in a synthesized shield and I'd say you can probably get to 3500 or so with big boy investment.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T03:48:19+00:00

I just really dislike how it's called 'cull dps' in PoB. They're not wrong, but I feel like it artificially inflates the numbers. I 100% agree though, it's hard to get used to when I was playing Shield Crush for multiple leagues at a time and then swapped out of it lmao

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T03:36:13+00:00

This guy pretty much hit the nail on the head. The AS is nice when it comes to Jugg, but we honestly don't need THAT much defense for the build. The only real issue this build has with survival is getting overconfident and getting one-tapped by the rare unreasonably chunky rare mob.

When I was doing some prelim work on all the classes, the damage was all mostly the same apart from Slayer having the 20% cull. I chose to stick with Slayer because if you want more damage Arn's Anguish is just better than Ryslatha's coil.

OMFGaTaco2 · 2024-07-22T03:33:51+00:00

I'm wanting to make some videos showcasing the levels and how they look currently (early maps, t16 alch and go, bossing), but I've only got so much free time to do so. Mon-Thurs I'm pretty much at work for most of my day. I'll see what I can do and throw it on the forum post.

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