I’m kinda new to Sentinel and Shield Throw.
I’ve been playing Warpath and some build other people have created and I’ve been looking for a build I would like to make myself.
The build planner listed below is something thrown together with the knowledge I have of the skill at the moment.
Please leave some feedback with explanation so I could learn the build better.
A pure shield throw build, this has become rather rare.
I’ve seen many ST builds, most were focused on Shield Throw proc’ing Smite. The main damage deal was Smite, so that’s why the Sentinel was using a staff or a sceptre.
With a staff, you can lower your shield throw to zero mana cost or so and you can spam it.
Your build looks interesting. Do you have much damage with it?
Haven’t fully build it out in game yet, still leveling and going through the acts.
So far I’m missing a lot of DoT in game.
I do around 1k dps at level 35/40
Hey… I am doing a Shield Throw Forge Guard and the only reason I proc Smite is for the speed buffs and a little healing - I dont use any of the smite damage nodes at all. only at level 84 and without ideal gear so far but its fairly tanky and does decent damage. Fun to play, but not sure if its going to be level 100 content viable tho…
@Moridan I think the main problem with Shield Throw as the main damage dealing attack is that there is no flat damage affixes for throwing attacks other than those added damage idols so I am expecting that my own build is likely to hit a wall fairly soon. Thats why most shield throws go the smite route and use a stat stick to boost spell damage.
Could you perhaps show your character in a build planner?
Perhaps I could get some information how you built your character and perhaps we could improve the solo shield throw.
I feel like it could be a strong build without Smite.
we should totally fix that!!! 
That is incorrect, there are 2 different prefixes that give flat base dmg for throwing attacks that are available to every character.
“Ballista’s” (Rings) and “Cursed” (any Jewelery)
I think throwing definitely is missing some build variety, but overall they are not underperforming.
So adding more flat base damage or even weapons that grant throwing damage would make them overpowered.
They needs to be a balance pass on all throwing skills , if they add more sources of flat damage
Apart from Ballista’s (up to +13) & Cursed (up to +17), and Shield Throw does have 250% added damage effectiveness. Then there’s the Void Bolts (up to +16 void), Fresh from the Forge (every 3 seconds, but it does add +80 damage) & Siege Captain (if you have a shield equipped) passives.
@Heavy @Llama8 yes… you are right… I should have been more specific - its the weapon slot that has no throwing damage and the added damage on the rings etc just cannot compare to the boost that spell or melee attacks can get from flat weapon increases and to get a decent amount of added flat you have to use up affix slots that would be useful for other things.
The throwing related passives are almost mandatory because of the missing throwing weapon boost.
I am still getting to clearing all the normal content (got the 3 lvl 90s to do)… that will help me decide if it can work…
The main thing I am already finding is that while you can be very tanky and have decent survivability, its the damage drops off in the higher end MoF… you seem to end up throwing that shield much more and while normal mobs are easy, rares and bosses tend to take much longer to clear which tends to make it a bit of a chore…
That’s true, I’m noticing that at lower levels as well, but there should be something there to fix that.
I’m stacking up on DoT affixes and so far that seems to work pretty okay
While i would love to see more throwing related sets or unique items, i don’t think we necessarily need throwing base types.
I am not a big fan of throwing in general but i would say throwing is in a good spot atm, from a power perspective.
So yeah, weapons with throwing related stuff as implicits would make throwing unbalanced probably
I kinda agree with you.
I don’t really see a lot of people going for throwing usually, I don’t know if it’s a part of not liking the combat style or something else.
I’m still working on how well it’s working late game. Hopefully I can answer that on my own soon enough.
There is only one major downside I have and I’m not sure that more people have the same.
Sometimes it seems that the shield glitches out and doesn’t return and I can’t use the skills for a bit (usually 5/10 seconds) which really hampers the damage output and kill speed.
Not sure if it’s an actual glitch or just a side effect of the skill.
I have a STS build and I have thought about some mild changes that can help with build synergies.
On the shield throw skill tree remove colossus and vampiric shield and replace them with two new skills.
Brimstone Shield (0/4): Void throw damage +2 Fire throw damage +1
Barrage of Brimstone (0/1): +100% void damage +50% fire damage No Aegis from skill tree
Alter Rygar’s Fury to lose only the shield block while shield is thrown. You should not lose block % chance from passives or other items stats (rings)
These mild changes would help with survivability and provide a more effective damage boost to skills and passives already available.
I never had such an issue.
I did not play Shield Throw for very long, I level a hero with it and raised him to level 73, so it’s only several hours, but I never had this problem.
Might be a bug then. I’ll report it when I’m seeing it again