Welcome to the Shield Bash Forge Guard Guide. This Forge Guard battles fiercely with Shield Bash, beating enemies to a pulp. Become a true juggernaut and tank all attacks that come your way while brutally thrashing foes with your dual shields.
This build is able to scale Damage and Defense with the same stats, thanks to Indomitable Force in Shield Bash. Use Ring Of Shields, Volatile Reversal and Sigils Of Hope for the great buffs they provide. Healing Hands supplements the Damage and provides mobility.
You need Monument of Protection to play this build, as it provides incredible Damage. This Unique is an easy to find world drop, check out the Starting Gear section for more information on how to acquire it. Additionally, items like Horns of Uhkeiros, Orian's Sun Seal, Siphon of Anguish and Shattered Chains are amazing Uniques that you want to obtain when scaling the build to its full potential. The investment to maximize this build is considerable, so it is not recommended as a starter.
The Shield Bash Forge Guard has great potential, capable of defeating all content in the game. It’s easy to play and has incredible Tankiness with great Damage. If you are looking for a shield juggernaut, this setup is perfect for you!
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Forge Guard Leveling Guide.
This build needs Monument of Protection. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips!
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Easy to Play
- Amazing Tankiness
- Good Single Target DPS
- Great Scaling With Gear and Uniques
- Limited AoE
- Average Clear Speed
- Scaling Crit Requires a Legendary
- Melee Suffers Against Certain Enemies
Skills
Shield Bash
Shield Bash is your main Damage Skill. Its Damage is scaled by stacking Block Effectiveness and Strength thanks to Indomitable Force and Iron Arms. This Skill also has a built in Damage multiplier with 1.5% More Damage per Block Chance, granting it 150% More Damage with capped Block. It doesn't scale with Attack Speed from any usual sources, but Shieldstorm provides a good amount of it.
Alternate Skills & Tips
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Grab Strength related Nodes to further scale your main stat and the multipliers associated with it.
- Armour Clad grants Damage Reduction and is crucial for any Sentinel's survivability.
- Juggernaut, Abyssal Endurance, Holy Icon and Defiance provide tons of Resistances. Use them as needed.
- Place Points into Stalwart, Steel Aegis, Honour and Walls of Solarum for the Block Chance.
- Void Corruption is an easy source of Critical Strike Multiplier for almost no investment.
- Lethal Strikes and Duelist provide great Damage scaling.
- Shield Crafter grants a large amount of Block Effectiveness and helps keep up the Buffs from Ring Of Shields.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
The Shield Bash Forge Guard spams Shield Bash to wreak havoc on enemies. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to their telegraphed attacks!
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Automatically cast Sigils Of Hope with Last Wish or Orian's Sun Seal.
- Move with Healing Hands towards enemy packs.
- Cast Volatile Reversal on top of enemies for its Buffs and extra Damage.
- Spam Shield Bash and destroy your enemies.
- Use Ring Of Shields whenever it's available.
Mapping
- Move quickly around the map with Healing Hands.
- Be careful not to backtrack when using Volatile Reversal.
- Group mobs before using Volatile Reversal to maximize its Buffs.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your Defensive Buffs and keep them active.
- Use Volatile Reversal to ramp up your damage then spam Shield Bash.
- For long Boss fights, stand still to activate the Mana cost reduction of Foot of the Mountain.
- Keep a Movement Skill off Cooldown for emergency situations or telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Use unspecced Rebuke to tank telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and stack as many other defensive layers as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Empowered Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- Capped Endurance
- 100% Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Crits
- 4000+ Health
- 80%+ Armor
- 100+ Strength
- 100% Block Chance
- 80%+ Block Effectiveness
- 100% Melee Crit Chance
- 70%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with four valuable T5 Affixes. The defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives.
Milestone 2
Get Monument of Protection, a common world drop that provides a huge Damage boost. Farm it by targeting Unique One Handed Axe Echo Rewards in the Reign of Dragons Timeline or by using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 3
Make sure your Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Crits is as close to 100% as possible. Leonine Greathelm, Citadel Boots and the Armor and Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits Suffix on your Helmet are great sources of it.
Milestone 4
Fit as much Health into your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and %Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 5
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols which help you cap all your Resistances or increase your Damage output. Keep an eye out for Huge Rahyeh Idols with Critical Strike Chance Prefix and Block Effectiveness Suffix. Your goal is to have items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 set up with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes.
Milestone 2
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Block Effectiveness and Strength to increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 3
Look for Horns of Uhkeiros. This Unique Shield provides a ton of stats, considerably raising Damage. Farm it by killing the Emperor of Corpses in the Reign of Dragons Timeline.
Milestone 4
Farm Foot of the Mountain with Legendary Potential. The stats on them are useful, and the Mana reduction is needed for Boss fights. Get Movement Speed on them. This item can be farmed by killing the Dungeon boss in Lightless Arbor. Kill the boss in T4 difficulty to maximize drop rate. Alternatively, if you want more Movement Speed, use Blood of the Exile.
Milestone 5
Farm Siphon of Anguish for the Doom chance it provides. Legendary Potential on it is not required. It's a common drop from the Shade of Orobyss in any Monolith of Fate Timeline. At the same time, look for Shattered Chains. This Belt grants more Damage per stack of Doom and other valuable stats. Farm it by killing the Shade of Orobyss at 120+ Corruption.
Milestone 6
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances, Endurance and Armor and Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits. Keep an eye for Huge Rahyeh Idols with Critical Strike Chance Prefix and Block Effectiveness Suffix.
Milestone 1
Continue upgrading your gear with T7 Exalted items and begin farming all your Uniques with Legendary Potential.
Milestone 2
Farm Monument of Protection with Legendary Potential. Get Melee Critical Strike Chance on it to unlock Crit scaling, skyrocketing your Damage.
Milestone 3
Get Orian's Sun Seal with Legendary Potential. This Unique Ring automates Sigils Of Hope, allowing you to have 3 or 4 of them up at all times, depending on the duration roll. Farm it by targeting Unique Ring Echo Rewards in the Age of Winter Timeline or by using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 4
Focus on finishing your Huge Rahyeh Idols with Critical Strike Chance Prefix and Block Effectiveness Suffix. You also want Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Health Suffix. The Suffixes on these Idols can also have Resistances, use them as needed.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with high tier Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and on the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes and Legendary Potential are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Look for Code of an Erased Sentinel with the Affixes indicated in the Planner. It's a great source of extra tankiness against Damage Over Time. This Relic is a Weaver's Will item, and as such it gains random Affixes. Farm it by targeting Unique Relic Echo Rewards in the Last Ruin Timeline or by using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 3
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless! Good luck with the chase!
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Echo of Solarum
- Light of the Moon
- Survival of Might
- Resolve of Humanity
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Heart of the Caldera
- Embers of Immortality
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as fast as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- Start with Grand Resolve of Humanity for its Resistances.
- Farm Grand Winds of Oblivion for the Damage it provides.
- Grand Body of Obsidian provides a huge amount of Armor that helps increase the survivability of the build.
- Grand Bones of Eternity helps cap your Block Chance.
- Finish up by getting Grand Crash of the Waves. Grand Bastion of Divinity is an option if you need the Resistance.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Curse of Flesh is valuable to help you find Huge Rahyeh Idol with Critical Strike Chance and Block Effectiveness.
- Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques, or Grand Strength of Mind for Experience.
- Grand Talon of Granduer helps you find more Orian's Sun Seal.
- Grand Scars of Blood helps you find more Monument of Protection.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your Shield Bash Forge Guard bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Use 2 Huge Rahyeh Idols with Critical Strike Chance Prefix and Block Effectiveness Suffix.
- Equip 4 Stout Lagonian Idols with the %Health Prefix and Health Suffix. These Idols can also have Resistances, use them depending on your needs.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
Other useful Idol Affixes
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
The Shield Bash Forge Guard uses Shield Bash to deal Physical Melee Damage. This build also has amazing survivability thanks to the defensive layers it takes advantage of.
- Melee Flat Damage: This build focuses on scaling Physical Flat Damage.
- Block Effectiveness: The Indomitable Force node in Shield Bash enables Flat Damage scaling with Block Effectiveness.
- Block Chance: Shield Bash has a built in Damage multiplier with 1.5% More Damage per Block Chance, granting it 150% More Damage with capped Block.
- Attack Speed: Shield Bash does not scale with Attack Speed from normal sources. However, Shieldstorm provides a source of it.
- % Increased Damage: Anything that increases Physical Melee Damage is welcomed.
- Strength: Shield Bash gains 4% Damage per point of Strength. The Iron Arms node in Shield Bash provides multiplicative Damage scaling with it. Additionally, it grants 4% Armour per point.
- Critical Strike Chance: This build reaches high Crit Chance, as long as you have Melee Critical Strike Chance on your Weapon. The Grand Winds of Oblivion Blessing further helps with Crit.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. Build as much as you can on your gear.
- Sigils Of Hope: They grant increased Damage, Block Chance and Block Effectiveness in this setup.
- Volatile Reversal: The Harbinger of Dust Node applies a powerful debuff on your enemies that makes them take additional Damage.
- Armor Shred: Shredding Armor is good for all hit builds, but especially impactful for Physical.
- Doom: Granted by Siphon of Anguish, this Ailment greatly increases the Melee Damage taken by enemies. 4% per stack, maximum 4 stacks. Shattered Chains scales this further, with an extra 5% more Melee Damage per stack.
- Penetration: Conviction is a source of Physical Penetration.
- Armour Clad: Grants Damage Reduction and is crucial for any Sentinel's survivability.
- Block Chance: Grants a chance to reduce the Damage taken from Hits.
- On a successful Block, a percentage of the Damage is mitigated.
- This build can easily reach 100% block.
- Block Effectiveness: The percentage of Damage reduced on Block depends on how much Block Effectiveness you have and cannot exceed 85%.
- Armor Mitigation: Just with the implicit Armor from your gear and the Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing your Armor reaches 70%+ Mitigation.
- Strength: Grants 4% Armor per point.
- Health: This build stacks enough Health to surpass the 4000 mark, providing a good Health pool.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Your base Endurance Threshold is 20% of your total Health.
- Walls of Solarum: Provides 10% Damage Reduction when you have 50%+ Block Chance.
- Slow/Chill: Greatly reduces the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Frailty Stacks 3 times.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
Summary
Overall the Shield Bash Forge Guard is a tanky powerhouse capable of defeating all the content in the game. It has great single target DPS and insane survivability thanks to its multiple defensive layers.
- Stack a massive amount of Block Effectiveness and Strength to scale the Damage of Shield Bash. At the same time, become a nearly invincible juggernaut thanks to these stats.
- Use Healing Hands to charge across the battlefield.
- Cast Volatile Reversal on top of enemies for extra Damage.
- Use Ring Of Shields for its Buffs.
- Spam Shield Bash and destroy your enemies.
- While they are not mandatory, Uniques like Horns of Uhkeiros, Orian's Sun Seal, Siphon of Anguish and Shattered Chains are great for unleashing this build's full potential.
Credits
Written by Volca.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Dredscythe.