Shield Charge

"Yeah, if you could make shield charge + splash smash props like urns and such, that'd be great"

Seriously needs some tlc here.

Shield Charge should be exactly what it sounds like.

It should scale with block chance somehow.
It should be usable apart from your main hand.
The knockback makes it clunky so just remove that.
Keep the stun.
Allow for some kind of interaction with the only other shield skill.
Remove distance factor.

It should perform like an offensive shield skill that allows you to ping around the map.

Also it should perform like this. In short, this skill needs more cowbell!

So nothing new on shield charge huh...

The trouble with Shield Charge is it's really awkward to get a proper runup, so the only way the devs could make it interesting is to make it do extreme damage if you manage to line it up. Unfortunately, that damage is simply overkill against most targets.

Hmm, overkill... has anyone tried this with Herald of Ash? :D

Herald of Ash works very well with this. My lv90 Shield Charger currently does 18k-52k damage on crit at max distance. Using HoA with Elemental Proliferation greatly helps with clearing packs by providing AoE damage as well as being reflect-proof.

I use Whirling Blades to get enough distance in between hits since it has a fixed minimum (unlike Leap Slam where you would need to move the cursor to leap and then move it back to the target). The combination is fluid enough to use Shield Charge as a primary skill, but it would probably be better to use a simpler skill instead.

I created a Templar to use Shield Charge with Herald of Ash, but I'm having a lot of problems with it. Namely, shield charge seems to miss almost 50% of the time. I charge at an enemy that isn't desynced and doesn't avoid the charge by moving, and at least as often as it hits, it misses.

Here's why that's a problem: I have several accuracy nodes and an additional accuracy support linked to shield charge. My character sheet says my hit chance is 95%, so I don't know what to do about this. I doubt all of the enemies are evasion + acrobatics builds. I wanted to use crits, but I might be forced to rework the build for resolute technique.

As far as the shield charge's mechanics go, there are a lot the devs could do to make this skill easier to use. How 'bout make it where we can hold down the mouse in a direction and shield charge in that direction for as long we hold the mouse button down? The skill impacts the first creature or object it comes into contact with, dealing damage based on distance like it does currently. Maybe make the mana cost tick every couple of seconds.

Oh, and improve the gem leveling. Stun duration caps at level 6, run speed at 10, and the damage multiplier drops off at level 15. I need a reason to level this gem past 15, because the 5% increase in the damage multiplier (at max charge distance) from being level 20 doesn't compensate for the 11% increase in mana cost after level 15.

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Zoid wrote:

I use Whirling Blades to get enough distance in between hits since it has a fixed minimum (unlike Leap Slam where you would need to move the cursor to leap and then move it back to the target).

Ooh, good idea. I was thinking of Lightning Warp (can be an extremely fast travel skill) or Smoke Mine (drop, charge, denotate...), although they both have their limitations (and the change to how mines are laid is a bit irritating for this build). Also I imagine Shield Charge is quite frustrating to use against bosses that take many hits to kill.

One thing that I wish I could do in Path of Exile is the 'charge train' - you hit the enemy with a charge and knock them back so far that you are in a position to immediately charge them again. It was extremely fun in Diablo 2 if you could line it up right, dealing brutal damage and giving the enemy no chance to retaliate. But in PoE, it seems knockback just isn't quite powerful enough to pull it off, even with Fending. Any ideas? Maybe someone will create a unique item with Increased Knockback Distance?