Poison Bleed Shield Titan

• Permanent Stats picked in Act II: Valley of the Titans: Increased charm charges gained
• Continue using the combo that you used in Act I, except now in place of Rolling Slam you can use Resonating Shield. Once you see the stun indicator appear hit the enemy with Boneshatter. Be careful that you aren't mindlessly blocking attacks; watch your heavy stun bar in the bottom left corner. If you prefer you can also stick with using Rolling Slam instead of Resonating Shield. We will only be using this combo up until level 22 when we can pick up Shield Wall.
• You can skip running the trials of Sekhemas for now.
• Because we are going for Hulking Form there's no need to rush it just to pick up Colossal Capacity. Wait till after the chaos trials and then just rush through it.
• side note: you can Resonating Shield to kill/block and not take any honor damage.
• As mentioned in the gearing section keep an eye out for any gloves or rings that have damage leech as life/mana. These can boost the comfiness of the build up significantly.

At Level 22

It's finally time, Shield Wall is here. Click the next tab over, pick up your gems, and visit the hooded one to respec the passive tree pathing.

Permanent Stats picked in Act II: Valley of the Titans: Increased charm charges gained

At Level 22

• It's finally time, Shield Wall is here.
• Ditch Boneshatter, Rolling Slam.
• Pick up Shield Wall, Shield Charge, and optionally Shockwave Totem.

• Respec your Passive tree!
• Visit The Hooded one to remove Blood Rush, the 2 skill speed small nodes before it, and the 1 attribute leading to it.
• Use these 4 points you just gained to pick up Relentless, Sturdy Metal, and the 2 small nodes to connect into Brutal.
• Now that your passive tree is connected again you can remove the redundant attribute nodes, and use those points to path into Mass Hysteria. Your remaining points will start to head towards Cruel Methods and pick up the remainder of the tree as you gain more levels

Continue with the Act

• During act II you may find a Lesser Jeweller's Orb. If you do use it on Shield Wall. For your 3rd support pick up Mana Leech for easy mana sustain. Alternatively if you are okay with spamming your mana pot you can pick up Bleed I early for more damage. (yes, its still good at this point even at 50% chance).
• From here on out for your campaign clear you will be dropping a shield wall and then immediately blowing it up for your clear. You will usually want to use Shield Charge for this, but Infernal Cry works when its off cooldown as well.
• For bossing you can optionally put down a Shockwave Totem, and it will keep blowing up the shield walls you put down. I prefer to just keep using Shield Charge, but your preference may vary.
• If you have an extra spirit gem you can cut Herald of Blood, but typically it will not be better than Herald of Ash at this point. If your gear is really good though, and you are using Bleed I in Shield Wall you can use it.
• Resonating Shield can also technically break them, but at this point in your gearing it takes too many hits to be worthwhile.
• As mentioned in the gearing section keep an eye out for any gloves or rings that have damage leech as life/mana. These can boost the comfiness of the build up significantly.

Permanent Stats picked Act III:

• !! Pick up the increased stun threshold for your venom draught !!
• Not much is going to change in Act III, but you will start getting more lesser jewelers orbs to use and better gear upgrades.
• Keep an eye out for gear upgrades. Your shield is always your number one priority. But don't neglect your body armor or any of your other pieces. If you haven't found any jewelry or gloves with leech yet you will also want to make that a priority.
• Once you get tier III support gems go ahead and put Poison II into Shield Wall. You can replace Mana Leech if you were using it. Once you get another tier III support cut Bleed II and replace Lightning Attunement in Shield Wall.
• Herald of Blood is 2nd priority for a jewelers orb and change your supports (Bleed II, Poison II, Bursting Plague).
• Towards the end of Act III you can start to use Resonating Shield with poison and bleeds. For the most part though Shield Wall will remain higher damage and the better option since you will not risk getting heavy stunned.
• When you get your level 10 spirit gem, you can cut Herald of Plague. You will likely not have the dexterity required for it yet. In the off chance you do though, take a peek at Act IV section and you can start using the Herald of Blood & Herald of Plague combo early.
• I would recommend waiting till near the end of act III to do the Trials of Chaos. I usually do it before taking the portal back in time.
• It should be pretty easy, and once you complete it you can blast through the Trial of the Sekhemas back in Act II and pick up Hulking Form.
• Once you Ascend into Titan you no longer need Bloodletting. With the increases from small passives around Exposed Wounds, Bleed II is enough to enable 100% bleed.

New in 0.5 Shark Fin Reward: Pick up Kaom's lesson: grants 30% increased armour, evasion and energy shield.

• Permanent Stats picked in Act IV: Halls of the Dead: Pick all resists tattoos | Abandoned Prison: Increased life recovery from flasks
• You can start transitioning into this as soon as Act IV starts. The biggest possible hang-up is getting enough Dexterity for Herald of Plague. If you don't have any dex on any of your gear it can be a tough requirement to meet. You can change your small passive nodes from strength to dexterity to make up the difference, but it will lower your HP by a bit.
• In a league start scenario if you can't transition right at the start of the act, just keep going. Keep an eye out for upgrades and gain levels for more passive points. Don't lose your momentum just to force the herald to work a few levels earlier.
• Change out your supports as needed if you haven't already in Herald of Blood (Bleed II, Poison II, Bursting Plague). Cut your Herald of Plague spirit gem if you haven't already.
• Once you have this you can start using Resonating Shield for the satisfying clear. Just be careful not to overuse it and take a heavy stun. Keep an eye out for a good armor value body armor as this can effectively push your heavy stun threshold higher. As always keep an eye out for any good armour shields that drop throughout the act.
• Fortifying Cry will also become available. This skill used to be a staple of classic Shield Wall builds, but now will only ever hit enemies 1 time per Shield Wall. You also can use it for a boost in map clearing, but with the bleeds and poisons set up its usually not necessary.

• Permanent Stats picked in Interludes: Interlude 2 Qimah Pillars: 3% movement speed.
• Head towards Crushing Judgement on the passive tree, but for the majority of our passive points the build starts picking up utility. Hefty Unit for increased stun threshold and quality of life, alongside Momentum and Light on your Feet for a significant speed boost.
• At this point the guide assumes you still don't have unqiues. Especially Constricting Command, but if you do you can start to copy the endgame trees and pick up the surrounded nodes that are close by.
• Speaking of unqiues, keep an eye out for a Nebuloch. It can start to drop in the mid to late section of the Interludes. Every other league it has also been a cheap pickup on trade, but given increased visibility of the build and possible reshuffles of unique tiering by GGG you never know where prices might end up. Hopefully this happens to you: Old man gives free Nebuloch.
• When you get to the end of the campaign you probably want to start fixing some of your other gear pieces. Don't spend all your time and currency on this, its just temporary gear after all. Pick up armor and jewelry to fix your resists and try to cap elemental resists to 75%. You don't need to worry about chaos resist immediately, its more of a mid end game goal.
• Remember to always keep 1 gear piece with leech physical attack damage as life. Do not try to get the similar sounding mod on the weapon, it will not work. Mana leech is also nice to have but doesn't become required until higher levels when mana costs ramp up more.
• If you have extra currency and are playing trade you may be able to pick up the essences to get started on your mace craft. You can also opt to try and track down the essences yourself but it may take awhile to get the specific ones needed. If its too difficult of a craft in early maps you can always put it off until later.

• With the leech changes in 0.5:
• It may be worth testing Vaal Pact, in conjunction with Voracious. We already pass by these nodes in this build. 15% increased attack speed is pretty good. My gut feeling is that its probably not worth losing the life flask, but its something to keep in mind. Couture of Crimson also exists.

• With the new limitation of only 1 crafted modifier:
• There may be newer and better options with everything being added to the game. In the meantime, for a starter weapon just throw an Essence of Abrasion onto any 1hand mace that naturally has +levels. Desecrate a Amanamu prefix afterwards to guarantee the "increased damage against enemies with fully broken armour" mod.
• A more powerful version of the craft likely first involves fracturing a +4 level of melee skills, but its best to wait to see our options before committing to this. This will be updated a few days into the league release and this is more known.

• Only use this section if you pick up a Constricting Command early.
• Fill out the core of the build shown here on the passive tree and then use the High budget tree to see where to go next. If its league start and you do not have Constricting Command Look at the lvl 90 league start variant.
• How early you can do this in 0.5 largely depends on any rarity tier changes to Constricting Command. It is also more known going into the league so it will be a sought after unique and expensive for awhile.
• Other unqiues such as From Nothing will also be harder to come by early. the variation with Resonance may also be more popular and more expensive.
• If you are a trade player and this is out of your reach you can keep running your maps/temples without it and build up your gold

• Example of a level 90 early league start character with no unqiues other than Nebuloch in your weapon set 2.
• At around level 80 you should start considering to respec your tree to take advantage of the weapon swap points. You should also connect the two sides of the passive tree on the outer ring and remove the redundant attribute travel nodes. It is better to do this before you reach the higher level 90s in order to save on gold cost on your respec.

With the strength of the build and being mostly rare items you can fit in rarity on your gear. Look at this version for an example of how to do it.

• But rarity is kind of boring isn't it? Lets instead make the numbers go higher. MORE DEFENSE. MORE SCREEN CLEAR. FASTER. INFINITE CHAINS.
• Disclaimer: might be unnecessary and cost all of your divines.

• Permanent Stats picked in Act II: Valley of the Titans: Increased charm charges gained
• Continue using the combo that you used in Act I, except now in place of Rolling Slam you can use Resonating Shield. Once you see the stun indicator appear hit the enemy with Boneshatter. Be careful that you aren't mindlessly blocking attacks; watch your heavy stun bar in the bottom left corner. If you prefer you can also stick with using Rolling Slam instead of Resonating Shield. We will only be using this combo up until level 22 when we can pick up Shield Wall.
• You can skip running the trials of Sekhemas for now.
• Because we are going for Hulking Form there's no need to rush it just to pick up Colossal Capacity. Wait till after the chaos trials and then just rush through it.
• side note: you can Resonating Shield to kill/block and not take any honor damage.
• As mentioned in the gearing section keep an eye out for any gloves or rings that have damage leech as life/mana. These can boost the comfiness of the build up significantly.

At Level 22

It's finally time, Shield Wall is here. Click the next tab over, pick up your gems, and visit the hooded one to respec the passive tree pathing.

Permanent Stats picked in Act II: Valley of the Titans: Increased charm charges gained

At Level 22

• It's finally time, Shield Wall is here.
• Ditch Boneshatter, Rolling Slam.
• Pick up Shield Wall, Shield Charge, and optionally Shockwave Totem.

• Respec your Passive tree!
• Visit The Hooded one to remove Blood Rush, the 2 skill speed small nodes before it, and the 1 attribute leading to it.
• Use these 4 points you just gained to pick up Relentless, Sturdy Metal, and the 2 small nodes to connect into Brutal.
• Now that your passive tree is connected again you can remove the redundant attribute nodes, and use those points to path into Mass Hysteria. Your remaining points will start to head towards Cruel Methods and pick up the remainder of the tree as you gain more levels

Continue with the Act

• During act II you may find a Lesser Jeweller's Orb. If you do use it on Shield Wall. For your 3rd support pick up Mana Leech for easy mana sustain. Alternatively if you are okay with spamming your mana pot you can pick up Bleed I early for more damage. (yes, its still good at this point even at 50% chance).
• From here on out for your campaign clear you will be dropping a shield wall and then immediately blowing it up for your clear. You will usually want to use Shield Charge for this, but Infernal Cry works when its off cooldown as well.
• For bossing you can optionally put down a Shockwave Totem, and it will keep blowing up the shield walls you put down. I prefer to just keep using Shield Charge, but your preference may vary.
• If you have an extra spirit gem you can cut Herald of Blood, but typically it will not be better than Herald of Ash at this point. If your gear is really good though, and you are using Bleed I in Shield Wall you can use it.
• Resonating Shield can also technically break them, but at this point in your gearing it takes too many hits to be worthwhile.
• As mentioned in the gearing section keep an eye out for any gloves or rings that have damage leech as life/mana. These can boost the comfiness of the build up significantly.

Permanent Stats picked Act III:

• !! Pick up the increased stun threshold for your venom draught !!
• Not much is going to change in Act III, but you will start getting more lesser jewelers orbs to use and better gear upgrades.
• Keep an eye out for gear upgrades. Your shield is always your number one priority. But don't neglect your body armor or any of your other pieces. If you haven't found any jewelry or gloves with leech yet you will also want to make that a priority.
• Once you get tier III support gems go ahead and put Poison II into Shield Wall. You can replace Mana Leech if you were using it. Once you get another tier III support cut Bleed II and replace Lightning Attunement in Shield Wall.
• Herald of Blood is 2nd priority for a jewelers orb and change your supports (Bleed II, Poison II, Bursting Plague).
• Towards the end of Act III you can start to use Resonating Shield with poison and bleeds. For the most part though Shield Wall will remain higher damage and the better option since you will not risk getting heavy stunned.
• When you get your level 10 spirit gem, you can cut Herald of Plague. You will likely not have the dexterity required for it yet. In the off chance you do though, take a peek at Act IV section and you can start using the Herald of Blood & Herald of Plague combo early.
• I would recommend waiting till near the end of act III to do the Trials of Chaos. I usually do it before taking the portal back in time.
• It should be pretty easy, and once you complete it you can blast through the Trial of the Sekhemas back in Act II and pick up Hulking Form.
• Once you Ascend into Titan you no longer need Bloodletting. With the increases from small passives around Exposed Wounds, Bleed II is enough to enable 100% bleed.

New in 0.5 Shark Fin Reward: Pick up Kaom's lesson: grants 30% increased armour, evasion and energy shield.

• Permanent Stats picked in Act IV: Halls of the Dead: Pick all resists tattoos | Abandoned Prison: Increased life recovery from flasks
• You can start transitioning into this as soon as Act IV starts. The biggest possible hang-up is getting enough Dexterity for Herald of Plague. If you don't have any dex on any of your gear it can be a tough requirement to meet. You can change your small passive nodes from strength to dexterity to make up the difference, but it will lower your HP by a bit.
• In a league start scenario if you can't transition right at the start of the act, just keep going. Keep an eye out for upgrades and gain levels for more passive points. Don't lose your momentum just to force the herald to work a few levels earlier.
• Change out your supports as needed if you haven't already in Herald of Blood (Bleed II, Poison II, Bursting Plague). Cut your Herald of Plague spirit gem if you haven't already.
• Once you have this you can start using Resonating Shield for the satisfying clear. Just be careful not to overuse it and take a heavy stun. Keep an eye out for a good armor value body armor as this can effectively push your heavy stun threshold higher. As always keep an eye out for any good armour shields that drop throughout the act.
• Fortifying Cry will also become available. This skill used to be a staple of classic Shield Wall builds, but now will only ever hit enemies 1 time per Shield Wall. You also can use it for a boost in map clearing, but with the bleeds and poisons set up its usually not necessary.

• Permanent Stats picked in Interludes: Interlude 2 Qimah Pillars: 3% movement speed.
• Head towards Crushing Judgement on the passive tree, but for the majority of our passive points the build starts picking up utility. Hefty Unit for increased stun threshold and quality of life, alongside Momentum and Light on your Feet for a significant speed boost.
• At this point the guide assumes you still don't have unqiues. Especially Constricting Command, but if you do you can start to copy the endgame trees and pick up the surrounded nodes that are close by.
• Speaking of unqiues, keep an eye out for a Nebuloch. It can start to drop in the mid to late section of the Interludes. Every other league it has also been a cheap pickup on trade, but given increased visibility of the build and possible reshuffles of unique tiering by GGG you never know where prices might end up. Hopefully this happens to you: Old man gives free Nebuloch.
• When you get to the end of the campaign you probably want to start fixing some of your other gear pieces. Don't spend all your time and currency on this, its just temporary gear after all. Pick up armor and jewelry to fix your resists and try to cap elemental resists to 75%. You don't need to worry about chaos resist immediately, its more of a mid end game goal.
• Remember to always keep 1 gear piece with leech physical attack damage as life. Do not try to get the similar sounding mod on the weapon, it will not work. Mana leech is also nice to have but doesn't become required until higher levels when mana costs ramp up more.
• If you have extra currency and are playing trade you may be able to pick up the essences to get started on your mace craft. You can also opt to try and track down the essences yourself but it may take awhile to get the specific ones needed. If its too difficult of a craft in early maps you can always put it off until later.

• With the leech changes in 0.5:
• It may be worth testing Vaal Pact, in conjunction with Voracious. We already pass by these nodes in this build. 15% increased attack speed is pretty good. My gut feeling is that its probably not worth losing the life flask, but its something to keep in mind. Couture of Crimson also exists.

• With the new limitation of only 1 crafted modifier:
• There may be newer and better options with everything being added to the game. In the meantime, for a starter weapon just throw an Essence of Abrasion onto any 1hand mace that naturally has +levels. Desecrate a Amanamu prefix afterwards to guarantee the "increased damage against enemies with fully broken armour" mod.
• A more powerful version of the craft likely first involves fracturing a +4 level of melee skills, but its best to wait to see our options before committing to this. This will be updated a few days into the league release and this is more known.

• Only use this section if you pick up a Constricting Command early.
• Fill out the core of the build shown here on the passive tree and then use the High budget tree to see where to go next. If its league start and you do not have Constricting Command Look at the lvl 90 league start variant.
• How early you can do this in 0.5 largely depends on any rarity tier changes to Constricting Command. It is also more known going into the league so it will be a sought after unique and expensive for awhile.
• Other unqiues such as From Nothing will also be harder to come by early. the variation with Resonance may also be more popular and more expensive.
• If you are a trade player and this is out of your reach you can keep running your maps/temples without it and build up your gold

• Example of a level 90 early league start character with no unqiues other than Nebuloch in your weapon set 2.
• At around level 80 you should start considering to respec your tree to take advantage of the weapon swap points. You should also connect the two sides of the passive tree on the outer ring and remove the redundant attribute travel nodes. It is better to do this before you reach the higher level 90s in order to save on gold cost on your respec.

With the strength of the build and being mostly rare items you can fit in rarity on your gear. Look at this version for an example of how to do it.

• But rarity is kind of boring isn't it? Lets instead make the numbers go higher. MORE DEFENSE. MORE SCREEN CLEAR. FASTER. INFINITE CHAINS.
• Disclaimer: might be unnecessary and cost all of your divines.