The max roll dual shield / shield bash build is solid.
I’m farming monoliths with it currently in cycle.
It’s a bit mana intensive at first until you get the boots but certainly doable.
Leveling with forged weapons was an absolute breeze too, very smooth overall.
Yeah. I’ve been playing around with approximately that build as well and the boots are pretty needed for any single target situation. Even then, the -mana cost relic seems like a must for this to feel good. It’s kind of a bottleneck at the moment because of just how specific what I need out of the relic is. That base + enough shield bash levels at least. Right now I’m running on just a +1 so that I can keep the mana reduction.
Currently trying to push into 200+ corruption, although I’ve never really been that good about that on any character. Hopefully the bosses will keep me motivated to continue but man farming corruption is still boring.
An update and a question: Here is where I’m currently at with the build: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/B7xz1mmo
It’s been taking me a while to find proper upgrades. I just dropped something potentially crazy though: A 3 LP Monument of Protection. It’s got moderately fine rolls for everything but the added flat damage for shield bash. Currently the only exalted axe I have that I could plausibly sacrifice to it is one with T6 Crit chance but only T5 Melee Crit.
I could try to craft it now to get a power spike. According to the planner it would take me from around 25% crit to 49%, assuming I actually hit both mods. Which seems like a really big bump. But just T6 melee crit gets me to 47%, T7 on it’s own gets me to 54%, and if I managed to get T7 melee crit and T5 crit, it’d take me all the way up to 65%.
So idk if I want to just get the power now or if I want to hold off for the higher cap. It seems fairly unlikely I’ll get another 3 LP one and the most I’ve found other than that was 1 LP. I’ve never really pushed past around 200ish corruption, but I figure I’m gonna go for it this season because of the new bosses. I’m not quite sure how soon I’m gonna be running up into a wall with this gear if I can’t start finding some upgrades.
Any thoughts?
EDIT: Oh lol. Just now I found a 2LP one from a Nemesis. So I have a little bit more of a backup, although I wonder if that means I should use the 2LP one now but higher risk to not hit both or use the 3LP one now and then the 2 LP to just make it a bit easier to hit exalted melee crit when I do find it?
I’d wait for a T7 melee crit on that item. The flat crit is too huge a multiplier with other gear in getting you too 100% Crit. Gratz on the find and it’s a good problem too have.
Any further update?
I did notice in the passive tree you take Unflinching in FG and I know the Maxroll guide says it but I just don’t know why? I’d take Guardian node for HP, Stun and Regen. All good things we need. Also we are really stun builds.
After tonight here is where I’m at
I was able to finally get an amazing Orian ring with T7 block and some Str. Also got a huge Thorn slinger belt, I like the + skill and got Phy dmg , double health.
I haven’t switched over too Uhkieros shield the mana cost scares me but I’m also not wearing the boots either so maybe they are required for the shield.
Got 1 last timeline for Harbinger. I do want to have a perma stun build at 275% base atm. Then tomorrow gonna work on some things and hope for a few upgrades before I attempt the pinnacle boss.
I’d love for the Code erased Sentinel relic with + shield bash. I really would love to take some + stun duration then get over too the Area effect node. Might mess with some theorycrafting in the end game.
I also have a weird build I want to make this week on a new alt.
Yeah idk either. It seemed like an odd choice after a while, but I’ve kind of just been too lazy to respec it because the respec system is still awful. I’ve gotten some minor upgrades since then, but at this point I’ve reached that part of the gear grind that kills my soul. It just feels like I’m endlessly pulling the gatcha waiting for a handful of specific upgrades. That said, idk how much more gear will help at this point.
I have gotten to Aberroth though and made some solid attempts. I’ve gotten a few abilities into the final phase, but it’s a fucking brutal fight for melee. Lots of AoE bullshit, a ton of it is DoT damage, lots of times where I can’t be leeching but I still might need to run through AoE DoTs… etc. It also doesn’t help that evade is frequently having the bug that sends me back to where I started. It makes it really inconsistent trying to use it for dodging stuff. I think I’ve reached my breaking point. Each attempt takes so long and once I ran out of keys I had to add a few minutes minimum, longer once I run out of glyphs of envy and/or if the boss doesn’t drop a key, just to make one more attempt just to try to practice the last minute of the fight.
Here’s where the build is at for reference: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/omlPrRnB
EDIT:
As far as the unique shield and boots go, yeah, you really can’t run one without the other. Even then it’s kind of sketchy for clear because you don’t get to stand still as often. Funny enough, I had the recommended combo of that doom belt and ring ready to go with some ok LP slams on them, but I ended up not really being able to use them, partially because it meant needing to use some worse gloves to try to keep my crit reduction up and partially because the mana regen is actually kind of load bearing. It feels terrible doing monos without a little extra mana regen to sustain you.
I been working on getting a good Uhkieros shield I got T7 str boots now and am only using them for bosses. That is my plan. Just have a different set-up of swapping 2 items for bossing.
Respec system is awful but yea you gotta change that talent I feel. I been working on perma stun because I want to play like a D2 Uber smiter. I made a thread chasing this goal and believe it’s possible.
I can stun lock Orobyss at 300 corruption and he never does a mechanic. I can stun lock bosses and cause them to miss phases or stop their main attack. Stun I believe is the way and how stun works is the more damage you do is part of that equation. So get all our damage and crits up with tons of Stun.
In the Shield Bash tree you need to take 3/3 Concussive attacks for 240% more stun and 24% stun duration. I then have a base 245% stun. Here is the thread I might update my journey more in there.
I feel that way too at time then I discover something or some mechanic that keeps me going.
I think it will help a lot. Think we can keep scaling this very well then pull out some cheeky way for defensives.
Nice I just got to him and did 2 attempts but tried to tank everything. Honestly went way better then I thought it would. Think between stun, damage, HP regen, leech I was doing fine. I just died to the big slam he does. I think I can get gear to tank that though. Or maybe I can stun him so he doesn’t do it.
So where the ground opens up and all the balls go in. I stood right on top of it never moving and was able to sustain. I haven’t done the full fight but I’m really focusing on the idea of not moving so we can keep leeching with my set up.
As for Dots I do notice you don’t have the Code of the Erased Sentinel relic. That can give you another 20-30% mitigation vs dots. That adds up quite a bit when combined with that Oracle ammy and armor.
Final Thoughts:
I think you can make some adjustments and maybe find fun in the build. I do understand where you are at because sometimes you hit a wall with no answers which feels bad. Or a particular grind seems almost pointless. I do think we can keep scaling this build and has lots of variations for potential.
Before I make more attemps I’m going to try and get my Crit/Damage/Stun up higher and make some adjustments. I am only running 3% leech from VK tree. I think with some more EHP/Endurance then more leech everything will come together.
On a side not planning on making a reflect build to lvl as an alt. Think it will be fun and these types of projects often clear my head and I think about new possible ways to play and gear. Sometimes on an Alt I’ll end up finding something awesome and am like oh wait I can use that on my main.
It’ll be fine for killing trash but it’ll take forever killing bosses. Spriggan Form’s Thorn Shield has the benefit of having a spell damage pulse when it expires…
On the stun stuff, I can give it a try, but at least at the corruption levels I’m at, nothing is particularly threatening. I can sometimes stun bosses out of attacks, but for the most part I just don’t need to.
Wait did you actually manage to stun him? I kind of assumed that wouldn’t work. Or if it does, not consistently. Like unless I can cancel his big slam in P1/P5 or the Death Lazer in P5, I can’t see that being that useful. You’re right that most other things can be tanked through as long as you don’t start getting stuff overlapping.
I can try to get a good Codex to ease the damage pressure on some of the AoE and maybe there’s some more damage I can wring out of the build if I get really lucky with another 2-3 LP weapon, but I feel like at this point the stuff that’s killing me isn’t going to stop killing me if I have a bit more gear. The slam and death lazer are just so much damage I can’t conceive of what I’d need to have to make me survive that.
I think I mostly just need attempts, but it sucks how little you actually get.
EDIT: Another thought on the passive tree while I’m monkeying around with it: Maybe the Crushing Blows node isn’t worth, at least against the boss. Like I’d hate to lose the mana regen in monos, but against bosses most of the time shield bash is gonna cost zero mana, so that damage based on cost is gonna do nothing. Although maybe I’m underestimating how much it takes to sustain Sigil of Hope/Ring of Shields/Volative Reversal.
I had a 0.9.2 relatiation build and I have to say you’re wrong.
It takes forever to kill both trash AND bosses! 
I think there are a few big issues to making a pure retaliation build in LE:
-You need to be extremely tanky. This is hard to do in LE because of all the layers and because of DoT. In GD you can do it because you can get really really high hp regen on top of the tankyness, but in LE you can’t regen that fast. And you also can’t leech because you’re not attacking.
-The health/damage they deal ratio of mobs isn’t particularly balanced for this. So even with close to 200% retaliation, it would still only chip away about 10% of their hp.
-Lastly, there are actually very few skills/affixes that give you retaliation. So your choices are very limited.
On the other hand, aura builds weren’t really viable before and they made them viable this patch, even if it’s restricted to just a few build variations.
So maybe we’ll get retaliation builds in 1.2? 
Yes! Anything can be stunned if you have enough stun tech and damage.
I have fought Heorot and he never moved and skipped all his phases. A boss can’t go into a phase or complete their attack if they are stunned.
This also works very well on Bosses like Emperor of Corpses when he does hit massive Aoe because once you stun and stop it. They will try to keep doing it and that never happens because you keep stunning them preventing that action.
I haven’t felt this way yet. I do have some other options I will consider using some Ward tech to give more EHP vs 1 shots and Dots. I’m still theorycrafting that idea out though.
I feel like it really should be a numbers game though. Getting more HP, more endurance so you can react far better and or allow things like leech to work better.
Also I do really focus on Ring of shields and notice most people don’t. I take the node Enduring Defense 3/3 for +6 secs duration. I also have some CD recovery lowering the CD to 13 sec and my Shields last 16.
This does a few things. When Shield crafter talent procs you summon Shields that last longer. You have overlap of the shield you cast so no downtime on protection. This allows you to get way more shields and be more sturdy in many scenarios.
As for the talent Defensive Shields which gives block and BE. I’m only 2/5. The extra block provides nothing I’m at cap. The BE is way less. Since more shields = more BE
Yea I can see that being annoying. Which is why I’m stopping at 2 and just gonna change things up before next attempt.
It might not be worth it even in monos. I have it too and am debating of going with something else like Iron Attunement which gives Dot mitigation as well. Then you get extra mana from the attunement.
Also could go over into Liquid Iron which is thee Dot mitigation and it gets doubled after a potion. That could fix some problems. You could go even mana on chest or 1 item (which im doing). Might just be swapping some gear around these different talents.
Edit - Also check out my Sigils talents. I went bottom left to save on mana and get the extra sigil. I now recently went up and grabbed the other one dropping last wish (which you don’t need on bosses). I now run 5 Sigils which is more Block, HP regen, BE.
Then it was clearly a bad one.
And therein lies the problem, the % is after mitigation. You’re building mitigation to be tanky which drops the % reflect damage. If you go flat reflect you can still be tanky & that has no effect on your outgoing damage.
Which is why if playing Sentinel you should use Ring of shields for reflect damage. Since they are HP sponges with little mitigation that monsters/bosses attack.
I’m not into that class fantasy. Gonna do FG cause of the reworked reflect dmg nodes.
Both should be fine with the right tech. Just interested to see how it works since it got buffed.
It was minion relatiation, not mine. I was tanky, minions weren’t.
I doubt it, because it’s very hard to raise minion retaliation. There’s idol affixes and not much else. And as I pointed out, the damage the mobs deal vs their total health pool isn’t a good ratio. Especially when you get echo mods that just increase health.
There were a bunch of uniques added ages ago that all had +100% minion reflect on them.
Are they still around in that form? And can FG use them? When I tried that build I didn’t really have many alternatives.
Those only reflect damage to you, not to your minions, though. Which is what I was talking about.
Reflecting damage to you doesn’t work well in LE because of the aforementioned damage reduction.