Work in Progress
With all changes/fixes to Shield Bash and all the fire gear I've collected over the months (and lack of Fate of the Fell) I gave it a shot and fell in love with it.
My particular build is fire but I can see how it could be adapted to holy, or (a lot less so) lightning or physical.
Gear Piro Marella – That cost reduction absolutely makes the build, the one thing every variation should have. The good part is that it's crafted so it's not too terrible to get good rolls on, given that you have the pattern. Mine is str, CC, block% and Shield Bash%, all contribute towards your damage.
Fire damage:
Maximus
Cindercoat
Magefist
SkillsPunish - Roar
There aren't too many choices for fire generators so Punish is the obvious choice. Decent damage and the block chance buff also adds onto Shield Bash's damage (I'll need to test it more but after trying out Provoke/Hit Me it seemed to add a good chunk of damage).
Shield Bash - Crumble
Oh man did this skill get love. Miss clicking mobs no longer makes you awkwardly stand around and swing at nothing, using it in melee range of a group doesn't make you spaz out all over the place, it roots your target so you actually hit things at ranged, and best of all it hits like a truck and (with Crumble) anything you kill explodes into more trucks. The AoE range is a frontal line so it does take a little work with positioning.
Some things I've noticed are that being snared does effect your charge speed and it is one of the very few reasons that you may miss your primary target. Also, the skill doesn't seem to be effected by attack speed (needs more testing). After using Bash with a 1 hander stacked with IAS and a 1.0 speed 2 hander, the attack rate of the skill seemed to be the same.
Steed Charge - Endurance
A very obvious choice, another skill that got a lot of love. Of course everyone loves going fast but with the second life portion of Akarat's Champion gone Steed in my opinion is now more important as now as your go to get out of jail (usually) free card. Nightmare could be considered also.
Shield Glare – Zealous Glare/Divine Verdict
I've given both runes a try and I've found that using Zealous Glare makes for a wonderful wrath generator, and one better and more useful than Provoke in my experience. As an added bonus of one of our DPS passives it also gets 30% CDR.
Condemn – Reciprocate/Falling Sword – Superheated Akarat's Champion
These last two skills are up for grabs, I've been running Condemn and Akarat's but I've been switching them all around and toying with everything. My idea of the choice of Condem/Falling sword is to supplement Bash by giving you a wider AoE skill to get whatever mobs may be just out of Bash's range, Condemn is usable more often but Falling Sword is more bursty.
Because this build doesn't use 6piece Akkans (or at least I'm not) Akarat's isn't as mandatory but it still is a good DPS buff
Laws of Valor does have the crit damage and resource reduction runes, but with what I mentioned about Bash ignoring IAS, you don't get the whole benefit of the skill.
Bombardment did gain some fire runes but I don't feel it's quite worth it without a Mortal Drama.
PassivesHeavenly Strength
A no brainer. Your biggest source of damage increase, now with no movement penalty.
Towering Shield
You are using 3 of the 4 skills listed, 20% is a nice chunk of added damage and the CDR for Shield Glare makes it an even better wrath generator.
Wrathful
Great passive for healing and even better with a good amount of globe healing bonus.
The last passive can be just about anything, Finery for more damage. Vigilant if you still feel squishy.
Insurmountable looks good but seems to have some sort of cooldown with it.
Seems a bit odd that you would neglect a passive like "Hold Your Ground", with the build building on Shield Bash and Punish(Roar).
Personally, I'm still wondering if I should go with Crumble or Pound for Shield Bash. Might be because I have yet to get a solid amount of Fire Gear yet, but... yeah. It's a rather noticeable damage difference if you have yet to gather up significant fire damage yet.
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It has been said... that in the end of all things... we would find a new beginning. But as the shadow once again crawls across our world... and the stench of terror drifts on a bitter wind... the people pray for strength and guidance. They should pray for the mercy of a swift death... for I've seen what the darkness hides!
... I don't think it's safe here.
Hoping for Pink Chain Lightning in D3!
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub
Seems a bit odd that you would neglect a passive like "Hold Your Ground", with the build building on Shield Bash and Punish(Roar).
Personally, I'm still wondering if I should go with Crumble or Pound for Shield Bash. Might be because I have yet to get a solid amount of Fire Gear yet, but... yeah. It's a rather noticeable damage difference if you have yet to gather up significant fire damage yet.
Maybe it's the right passive for that 4th spot, maybe not, it's only been a day since the patch and there is still lots of time to try things out. And honestly though Finery puts my sheet damage over 1mil again, and I enjoying seeing that :p.
Play around with it. The smaller range of Pound will probably want more AoE from your other skills but that single target is awesome. In the end you would likely want 6piece Akkans for that infinite Akarat's to replace the damage you lose for not having Magefist+Cindercoat (and the bonus regen replaces the RCR)
From what I have tried, using shield bash as your wrath dump, I found I had difficulty in t4+ in terms of sustain. Because the wrath cost is so low, you don't get enough healing to mitigate some of the damage, I really suggest Blessed Shield Combust as a second wrath dump when you need some healing.
Seems a bit odd that you would neglect a passive like "Hold Your Ground", with the build building on Shield Bash and Punish(Roar).
Maybe it's the right passive for that 4th spot, maybe not, it's only been a day since the patch and there is still lots of time to try things out. And honestly though Finery puts my sheet damage over 1mil again, and I enjoying seeing that :p.
My point was that the 15% block basically gives you 45% more weapon damage on Shield Bash (from the +300% Block Chance), which is quite nifty indeed
It has been said... that in the end of all things... we would find a new beginning. But as the shadow once again crawls across our world... and the stench of terror drifts on a bitter wind... the people pray for strength and guidance. They should pray for the mercy of a swift death... for I've seen what the darkness hides!
... I don't think it's safe here.
Hoping for Pink Chain Lightning in D3!
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub
My point was that the 15% block basically gives you 45% more weapon damage on Shield Bash (from the +300% Block Chance), which is quite nifty indeed
I totally understand that, but after giving it a try, Finery was giving me several million more damage than Hold Your Ground was. Maybe with lower amounts of strength HYG would be better but for me it clearly was not.
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With all changes/fixes to Shield Bash and all the fire gear I've collected over the months (and lack of Fate of the Fell) I gave it a shot and fell in love with it.
My particular build is fire but I can see how it could be adapted to holy, or (a lot less so) lightning or physical.
Sheet Stats - http://i.imgur.com/1FAqEc5.png
Diablo Progress - http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/zeight-1221/Zeit/43982271
My typical Shield Bash crits on white mobs are around 30-35mil, on elites I've seen as high as 99mil while solo.
Gear
Piro Marella – That cost reduction absolutely makes the build, the one thing every variation should have. The good part is that it's crafted so it's not too terrible to get good rolls on, given that you have the pattern. Mine is str, CC, block% and Shield Bash%, all contribute towards your damage.
Fire damage:
Maximus
Cindercoat
Magefist
Skills Punish - Roar
There aren't too many choices for fire generators so Punish is the obvious choice. Decent damage and the block chance buff also adds onto Shield Bash's damage (I'll need to test it more but after trying out Provoke/Hit Me it seemed to add a good chunk of damage).
Shield Bash - Crumble
Oh man did this skill get love. Miss clicking mobs no longer makes you awkwardly stand around and swing at nothing, using it in melee range of a group doesn't make you spaz out all over the place, it roots your target so you actually hit things at ranged, and best of all it hits like a truck and (with Crumble) anything you kill explodes into more trucks. The AoE range is a frontal line so it does take a little work with positioning.
Some things I've noticed are that being snared does effect your charge speed and it is one of the very few reasons that you may miss your primary target. Also, the skill doesn't seem to be effected by attack speed (needs more testing). After using Bash with a 1 hander stacked with IAS and a 1.0 speed 2 hander, the attack rate of the skill seemed to be the same.
Steed Charge - Endurance
A very obvious choice, another skill that got a lot of love. Of course everyone loves going fast but with the second life portion of Akarat's Champion gone Steed in my opinion is now more important as now as your go to get out of jail (usually) free card. Nightmare could be considered also.
Shield Glare – Zealous Glare/Divine Verdict
I've given both runes a try and I've found that using Zealous Glare makes for a wonderful wrath generator, and one better and more useful than Provoke in my experience. As an added bonus of one of our DPS passives it also gets 30% CDR.
Condemn – Reciprocate/Falling Sword – Superheated
Akarat's Champion
These last two skills are up for grabs, I've been running Condemn and Akarat's but I've been switching them all around and toying with everything. My idea of the choice of Condem/Falling sword is to supplement Bash by giving you a wider AoE skill to get whatever mobs may be just out of Bash's range, Condemn is usable more often but Falling Sword is more bursty.
Because this build doesn't use 6piece Akkans (or at least I'm not) Akarat's isn't as mandatory but it still is a good DPS buff
Laws of Valor does have the crit damage and resource reduction runes, but with what I mentioned about Bash ignoring IAS, you don't get the whole benefit of the skill.
Bombardment did gain some fire runes but I don't feel it's quite worth it without a Mortal Drama.
Passives Heavenly Strength
A no brainer. Your biggest source of damage increase, now with no movement penalty.
Towering Shield
You are using 3 of the 4 skills listed, 20% is a nice chunk of added damage and the CDR for Shield Glare makes it an even better wrath generator.
Wrathful
Great passive for healing and even better with a good amount of globe healing bonus.
The last passive can be just about anything, Finery for more damage. Vigilant if you still feel squishy.
Insurmountable looks good but seems to have some sort of cooldown with it.
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/crusader-the-church-of-zakarum/87839-by-fire-be-purged-fire-the-new-hotness-2h-fire
Personally, I'm still wondering if I should go with Crumble or Pound for Shield Bash. Might be because I have yet to get a solid amount of Fire Gear yet, but... yeah. It's a rather noticeable damage difference if you have yet to gather up significant fire damage yet.
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub
Maybe it's the right passive for that 4th spot, maybe not, it's only been a day since the patch and there is still lots of time to try things out. And honestly though Finery puts my sheet damage over 1mil again, and I enjoying seeing that :p.
Play around with it. The smaller range of Pound will probably want more AoE from your other skills but that single target is awesome. In the end you would likely want 6piece Akkans for that infinite Akarat's to replace the damage you lose for not having Magefist+Cindercoat (and the bonus regen replaces the RCR)
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub