[3.1] JUGGERNAUT/BERSERKER 1H+Shield Max Block&Spell Block Tank, Atziri Killer+a BoR version

Please, if you have any questions, DO NOT SEND ME PRIVATE MESSAGES, but post your question here in the thread!

If you're interested in the Bringer of Rain-version of this build, scroll down to the end of this post.


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Introduction
Hi everyone!

There's been a lot of interest in a previous build by Boxsalesman (the guy who some may know as the guy with all the VODs about map bosses), which unfortunately hasn't been updated from 1.0.6. You can find the original build here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/557394
So, to emphasize, the build was originally Boxsalesman's, who doesn't play anymore. I updated it since patch 1.1. to this day for each patch.

The build is also available as a Duelist:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/868996
What's the difference? Marauder has slightly more life, but slightly less DPS, while Duelist has slightly less life, but slightly more DPS.


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Youtube & Twitch
https://www.youtube.com/user/jeotee


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3.1 update
With the new Ancestral Call support, you can go Molten Strike, which is very powerful atm. Also, Infernal blow got a slight buff thanks to it. Sunder is still very strong. The other melee skills are ok, but sub-optimal.

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Video Section
2.0 videos:
http://youtu.be/-OloT44-II8 - Apex of Sacrifice deathless run, all bosses

1.3 videos:
http://youtu.be/P2NoRoNsmec - a short introduction into the build with some gameplay

http://youtu.be/TYl8VK32jDE - Apex of Sacrifice deathless run, all bosses

http://youtu.be/lIJtX5u844M - facetanking Abaxoth in a 78 Palace map


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Ascendancy Class Specialisation
We go for the Juggernaut class specialisation: http://www.pathofexile.com/ascendancy/classes/Juggernaut
And take Unrelenting + Unstoppable + Unbreakable.

You can also go for Berserker if you want more DPS: http://www.pathofexile.com/ascendancy/classes/Berserker
And then take Pain Reaver + Aspect of Carnage + Rite of Ruin
(If you go for Berserker, you don't need Warlord's Mark curse because you get leech from your Ascendancy!)


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Passive tree
The passive tree is the same for all skills.

This is a very high level passive tree, and only serves as an example of useful things you can take. Do not think you can achieve such a high level easily. However, even at level 70, this tree offers 5k HP with good gear and very nice DPS with a 5L or 6L.


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Skill Gems
Ice Crash
6L: Ice Crash - Melee Physical Damage - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Increased Area of Effect - Faster Attacks - Added Fire Damage
Static Strike
6L: Static Strike - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Faster Attacks - Increased AoE / Added Fire Damage
Infernal Blow
6L: Infernal Blow - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike - Ancestral Call - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Faster Attacks
Earthquake
6L: Earthquake - Melee Physical Damage - Less Duration - Concentrated Effect - Increased Area of Effect - Added Fire Damage / Brutality (no elemental auras then)
Sunder
6L: Sunder - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike - Concentrated Effect - Faster Attacks - Added Fire Damage / Brutality (no elemental auras if Brutality)
Molten Strike
6L: Molten Strike - Ancestral Call - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Multistrike - Concentrated Effect - Added Fire Damage


Everything else is the same for all skills:
4L: Determination - Hatred - Herald of Ash - Tempest Shield
4L: Ancestral Warchief - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks - Brutality
4L: Reckoning - Melee Physical Damage - Endurance Charge on Melee Stun - Ruthless
3L: Blasphemy - Warlord's Mark - Summon Chaos Golem
3L: Shield Charge - Blood Magic - Fortify

Full list of required gems by colour:
Ice Crash/Static Strike/Infernal Blow/Earthquake/Sunder
Ancestral Warchief
Melee Physical Damage x3
Weapon Elemental Damage
Multistrike (for Sunder, Static Strike and Infernal Blow)
Melee Splash (for Infernal Blow)
Added Fire Damage
Determination
Herald of Ash
Blood Magic
Reckoning
Endurance Charge on Melee Stun
Warlord's Mark
Shield Charge
Fortify
Brutality x3
Ruthless

Faster Attacks x2
Hatred

Blasphemy
Increased Area of Effect
Tempest Shield
Summon Chaos Golem


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Buffs & Curses
You cannot run all 4 auras at once, choose the 2 that you most prefer:
- Warlord's Mark (with Blashpemy) + Hatred for DPS
OR
- Warlord's Mark (with Blashpemy) + Determination for survivability
OR
- Hatred + Herald of Ash if you want to go full DPS mode
OR
- if you run Brutality on your main skill, elemental auras are worhtless, so run blasphemy warlords + determination
OR
- if you are Berserker and run Brutality, then Determination+Arctic Armour

Tempest Shield is not an aura, but a buff so we can always run it.

The best curse is Warlord's Mark IMO cause it gives you an insane boost to survivability and mana sustainability. Other useful curses: Enfeeble, Temporal Chains, Elemental Weakness, Flammability (Infernal Blow), Frostbite (Ice Crash), Conductivity (Static Strike).


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FAQ
Q: Why do you take Unwavering Stance in your high level passive tree, but not Iron Reflexes? Doesn't that passive remove all chance to evade?
A: It does, but one of the key aspects of this build is having high damage mitigation, so you don't mind getting hit. You will either block or mitigate it with armour and a huge life pool. Either way, we use only pure armour gear and would have no evasion anyway (not more than only 7%). Meanwhile, getting stun-locked is a real threat while doing map bosses, and Unwavering stance completely eliminates that threat.

Q: Why does the build use Aegis Aurora instead some other unique shield like Prism Guardian or Lioneye's Remorse?
A: Because Aegis aurora replenishes your energy shield each time you block. The amount of ES that will be replenished depends on the amount of your total armour. Since this build has high armour, a very high chance to block attacks and spells, you block often, which results in a lot of ES being replenished often, which, finally, means you will be a lot more tanky against most monsters.

Q: Why use maces and not axes/swords etc?
A: Because maces stun more often, which means we can use a counterattack skill with endurance charge on melee stun to generate endurance charges FOR FREE. Also, doryani's catalyst offers very nice dps with a boost to your elemental damage, as well as elemental damage leeched as life. Of course, if you want to use a Soultaker, you can do that if you have the currency, it's completely viable.

Q: Why don't you use CWDT?
A: Because Immortal Call was nerfed so hard it isn't worth using linked to CWDT. Even with 6 endurance charges, you would get like 1.5 secs of IC. In 95% of casses, it is MUCH better to have 6 endurance charges up instead of the 1-2 seconds of Immortal Call.

Q: Why don't you get more Energy Shield (ES)? Wouldn't that make you tankier?
A: Having more ES won't make Aegis Aurora replenish more ES per block. ES replenish from Aegis is based on your armour (2% of armour replenished as ES), which is why you want to have as much armour as possible. You can have 2k ES, but 10k armour and would regenerate only 200 ES per block (2% of 10 000), but if you have 500ES and 16k armour, you regenerate 320 ES per block. This build cannot have more ES than it already has without losing armour, which would be pointless, as I hope I explained now, since that would actually make you replenish LESS Energy Shield per block.

Q: Why take Unstoppable (Juggernaut Ascendancy node)?
A: Because Unstoppable practically completely negates the effects of chilled ground, tar on ground, temporal chains, and reductions to movement speed from items (such as Lioneye's Remorse). Having more movement speed and being able to move out of the fray faster will save your life much more often than, for example, having extra armour would. If you have played a character to levels 90+ and did tier 13+ maps, you probably won't need convincing about this, as you will know how temporal chains and/or chilled ground can be dangerous, ESPECIALLY if they are combined. Doing a temporal chains + chilled ground/tar map and not being reduced below base movement speed is absolutely huge and one of the biggest buffs in the Juggernaut Ascendancy tree.


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Gear
Basically, there are no specific "must have" items for this build (except one, which costs only 1 chaos), but only base types of items.

- 1h weapon:
Can be anything you choose of the following: axe, mace, sword. What you need to be looking for, as for most builds, is pure physical damage on which ever weapon you choose. However, it might be good to focus on maces, if you hope to get or think of getting a Doryani's Catalyst, which is a great item for numerous reasons: 1) the DPS goes ove 300, which is very nice; 2) it gives you also 100% increased elemental damage, which is crazy good for the fire part of Infernal Blow; 3) it gives you 1% elemental dmg life leech. (A Doryani's Catalyst is not NEEDED, it is only a nice addition to the build if you can get it.)

An example of a good rare 1h weapon is this mace:


- Chest:
A chest with high armour, life and resists; no hybrid chests because we do not take Iron Reflexes on the passive tree. Late-game, you should try and get a nice Astral Plate for the resists. That's all there is to it. Of course, getting a 5L, and eventually a 6L is preferable.

- Shield:
Again, you want as much armor as possible, life, resists, and preferably additional block chance, just because block is one of the greatest mechanics in-game at the moment, and your build benefits greatly from it. Any rare version of a shield is good for this build, but if you can get a Lioneye's Remorse, or even better, an Aegis Aurora, or the best shield possible The Surrender, you will only get more tanky.
I have to note specifically that Aegis Aurora and The Surrender are GREAT for this build (as for most builds), and if you can get your hands on any of them, you will literally be able to facetank most mobs and a lot of bosses in the game.

- Boots:
Again, armour, life and resists, and move speed, ofc.
If you can get the Rainbowstride boots, it is a great addition to your build to boost your spell block. They're not that expensive either (a couple of chaos atm).

- Gloves & Helmet:
Armour, life, resists, mana leech, attack speed, flat physical damage...

- Belt:
Try to get a Rustic Sash belt with additional life, armour, weapon elemental damage and resists.
This is a very nice unique belt for this build:
(not as good after the nerf in Awakening, but still nice)

- Rings:
Resists, life, flat physical damage, especially mana leech/life leech...

- Amulet
This is the only item that is mandatory for this build:

The 50% block to spell block is simply too powerful to miss. Also, if you can get a corrupted version of the amulet with 4% additional spell block, or a similar GG corrupted mod, even better.


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My Current Gear
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The gear section is for showing gear, if you're interested how to set up your gem links, look at the Skill Gems section. Literally every gem slot is there.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The gear section is for showing gear, if you're interested how to set up your gem links, look at the Skill Gems section. Literally every gem slot is there.


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Levelling Guide
29 Points


70 points


Great levelling items:




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Bandits
Take either Oak or help Eramir, both are OK choices, it's up to you.


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DOES THIS BUILD WORK WITH A BRINGER OF RAIN?
Since a ton of people have been asking me if this build works with Bringer of Rain, I've decided to add a section only for that. The answer is: yes, it works.

Your gear has to be something like this then:


BoR 4-link:
Ice Crash - Weapon Elemental Damage - Increased Area of Effect - Added Fire Damage / Hypothermia

Static Strike - Multistrike - Weapon Elemental Damage - Increased Area of Effect / Added Fire Damage

Infernal Blow - Melee Splash - Multistrike - Weapon Elemental Damage


It is a lot more harder to get resistances, so you can't use Meginord's belt, you have to use a tri-res one. Your rings have less chance of having flat physical as well, so you lose some DPS and life on your gear. The good thing of using a BoR is that you don't have to buy/craft a 6-link chest and that you get 6% extra block, which good for this build, and which means you can lose some points from block nodes to put them elsewhere. Unfortunately, since with a BoR, your armour sucks, you more or less have to go for Iron Reflexes, so you don't gain actually any extra nodes from a BoR.


BoR passive tree:
Exactly the same, just pick up Iron Reflexes.


So, overall, using a BoR instead of a chest and normal helmet means:
PROS:
+ Slightly more block chance (6% extra)
+ Cheaper to gear (since no 6L)
+ DPS remains almost the same

CONS:
- Forced to take Iron Reflexes (IR)
- Less armour even with IR
- Less life
- Harder to cap resists

Is this build better than a comparable Facebreaker build? What do I gain/lose by taking a 1h over using a Facebreaker?

Well, I'm not sure what the DPS is with Facebreaker, but I reckon it wouldn't be better than with my current axe, which is 1ex worth. If you go for a weapon and manage to get an even better axe, your DPS will probably be higher. Going Facbreaker Infernal Blow is probably cheaper, but I'm not sure how pleased you would be with it late-game.

Also, a Facebreaker with the passive tree I linked wouldn't make any sense, since in this build, you go for Resolute Technique, i.e. no critical strikes.

How effective do you think this build would be at clearing 76+ maps?

As you can see, my character was lvl90 when I posted this build, it is now lvl 91. So, I'm basically doing only lvl77+ maps :) the build is very effective, you will have no problems whatsoever, since you can tank almost all mobs with ease. If you can manage to get a &L chest, your clear speed will be even better. But even with a 5L, as I have one, you're fine.

Basically, if you're solo, you jump right in the middle of packs and blow them up fast, and if you're in a group, you're the tank and you're fast anyway since, well... since you're in a group :)

I have something similar, with a rathpith you can get 75block/spellblock

"

Zerber wrote:

I have something similar, with a rathpith you can get 75block/spellblock

True, but Rathpith isn't that good for this build, since it focuses on armor. That's why the lioneye's shield or, even better, aegis are great for this build. I say "even better" for Aegis because of the "Replenishes Energy Shield by 2% of Armour when you Block". This is especially OP if you're in a party where someone is running discipline.

looking forward to trying this build , I found a aegis when lvling my poison arrow guy and the poison arrow build just seemed very weak (lvl 81 and lvl 69 maps take forever to clear) ... it might be because i don't have the gear yet I'm not sure.

however this build seems fairly easy to gear for and since i have all the gems required already and an aegis i just need to focus on a decent 5l chest and a decent one hander and I should be ready to rock.

lvl 30 atm seems fun. will definitely stick it out and looking forward to being able to equip my aegis.

Could I please get a few tips for levelling?
I'm having huge mana issues at the moment, should I be using other skills?
Currently level 40.

You should get the mana nodes at the duelist beginning as soon as possible. Also, you need at least 2% mana leech on gear, but 4% would be ideal. If you cant get any of those soon, use mana leech gem, that solves all your problems until you get to late game, when you can get mana leech gear.