I am trying to create a "Captain America" styled build in which the user uses a fist and a bashing shield.  I'm assuming that Monk would be best but I can see benefits in barbarian or other classes as well.

 

Has anyone tried this?  Is it worthwhile or a futile path?

 

Thanks!

Bashing Shields are a dps loss, but the way PoE is on normal or lower you should be able to get through it with a party. Monk would probably be best for the damage output and other great abilities, but Barbarian could work for more crowd control and Paladin would be great as a support character

Problem is that I always play on POTD so I would definitely be looking for something that is viable on that difficulty.

None of the shields look right, but Badgradr's Barricade seems to have a thematically appropriate set of abilities. Monks can spam full attacks as long as they have wounds, so you should get a lot of use out of the bashing if you go in that direction.

Do you know if lashes (turning wheel, lightning strikes) apply to the shield bash?

I don't know about the lashes. I would expect them to be applied but it's worth testing.

Badgradr's Barricade is def. no dps loss for monk with Torment's Reach. The AoE also triggers Thrust of Tattered Veils on crit...

 

Also Torment's Reach's cone is not dependent on the weapon damage. Bash is a fast attack - which is good for Torment's Reach. The cone has it's own base damage so the low dmaage of bash doesn't hurt much.

 

Also a bashing shield is no dps loss with Full Attacks - only with auto-attacks.

 

A barb with Novice's Suffering is def. viable for PotD. A fighter as well. You don't need any dmg bonus talents/ablilites, you can get away with lowish ACC (graze do nearly as much dmg as crits) and can still dish out good damage while you can totally focus on defensive stuff. 

 

Both could use Dragon's Maw instead of Badgradr's Barricade.

Edited April 23, 20187 yr by Boeroer

I was thinking of using the below;

 

Abilities

 

Swift Strikes

Force of Anguish

Turning Wheel

Crucible of Suffering

Duality

Torments Reach

Iron Wheel

Rooting Pain

Soul Mirror as a replacement for one of these? Can stack with the Barricade's arrow reflect and durgan refined arrow reflect?

 

Talents

Lightning Strikes

WF: Peasant

Vulnerable Strike

Savage Attack

Veteran's Recovery

Sword and shield style

Heart of the Storm

Wound Binding? Lesser Wounds?

 

For attributes, I'm assuming I should spread between Might/Con/Dex/Per?

Edited April 24, 20187 yr by Krowseph

I'd think Scion of Flame before Wound Binding or Lesser Wounds. Depending on how effectively you're unloading wounds maybe eve before Heart of the Storm.

 

I don't think you need a ton of Dex, since your main plan is to spam Torment's Reach. I'd do something like the Monksterlasher's spread, maybe less Resolve (the shield should be plenty of deflection) and a bit more Dex.

I was thinking Rooting Pain + Lesser Wounds would be a good combo since I would be using this guy as a sort of main tank whom also spams torments reach etc.  Saying that, do you feel that Heart of the Storm or Scion of the Flame would be better?  Maybe I can have both and remove Veteran's recovery since this isn't a solo run and I will have a healer/chanter in the area.

 

Maybe not even take swift strikes/lightning strikes and heart of the storm as I don't really care about auto attacks?

Edited April 24, 20187 yr by Krowseph

I just don't think Lesser Wounds does much-enemies worth worrying about will do plenty of damage to keep your wounds up at 10 damage/wound. It's basically an empty pick IMO.

If you get hit let's say for 12 damage then the "overhanging" damage of 2 (or 4 in case of Lesser Wounds) will be considered for the next hit. It's not lost. If you then get hit by 4 damage then with Lesser Wounds you'll have a second wound while without Lesser Wounds you would need to wait for the next hit.

 

It's a 20% increase of wound income which can't a bad pick per se.

 

Wound Binding can always be substituted with Potion of Infuse wVE. So if it's not crucial for the character's style/feel I would leave it out.

I get how Lesser Wounds works on paper, but in practice I think it's less impressive. The wound cap means that damage spikes frequently exceed a monk's storage capacity, and enemy DPS in hard fights is often high enough to add wounds faster than I can use them, again resulting in wasted damage at the cap. The main situation in which I find my monks struggling to generate wounds is when they don't get targeted at all, which Lesser Wounds doesn't address.

 

IDK, it could be a playstyle difference, I just find it underwhelming in practice.

I noticed between the monksterlash builds and the anvil builds that the anvil does not take swift strikes and lightning strikes.  Seeing as this build does not depend on attack speed, should I forgo swift strikes and lightning strikes for something else or is the lightning lash still beneficial?