Shield Bash Forge Guard Guide
Last Updated:April 15, 2025|Changelog
The Shield Bash 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 shield.
This build is able to scale Damage and Defense with the same stats, thanks to Indomitable Force in Shield Bash. Use Ring Of Shields and Sigils Of Hope for the great buffs they provide. Healing Hands supplements the Damage and provides mobility.
This build needs Event Horizon, as it provides incredible Damage. Shield Bash is unaffected by this Unique's downside to Attack Speed. Additionally, items like Horns of Uhkeiros, Siphon of Anguish and Shattered Chains are amazing Uniques that you want to obtain when scaling the build to its full potential.
Overall, this powerful Shield Bash Forge Guard is an amazing build that performs well in endgame, even in Hardcore. If you are looking for a juggernaut that destroys enemies and is able to survive the hardest encounters, this build is perfect for you!
This build needs Event Horizon. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 80 Character.
Reach Level 80 with our Sentinel Leveling Guide.
Check our Tier Lists to know how this build performs in the current patch.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
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.
- Ring Of Shields: If you can cap your Block Chance without Defensive Shields, specialize Enduring Defense instead.
Skills showcase extra Skill Points in case you find +Level of Skills that may not be included in the Planners.
Passives
- Grab Strength related Nodes to further scale your main stat and the multipliers associated with it.
- Forgemaster's Might allows you to wield a Two-Handed Weapon with a Shield.
- Shield Crafter grants Block Effectiveness and helps with maintaining the Buffs from Ring Of Shields.
- Juggernaut, Abyssal Endurance, Holy Icon and Defiance provide tons of Resistances. Use them as needed.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Activate Ring Of Shields for its buffs and extra Damage.
- Spam Shield Bash and destroy your enemies.
- Use Healing Hands to move across the map.
- When mapping with Event Horizon, use Evade often to remove the Dilation stacks and maintain your Movement Speed.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your buffs and keep them active.
- For long Boss fights, stand still to activate the Mana cost reduction of Foot of the Mountain.
- Stack up the Dilation buff from Event Horizon to maximize your Damage.
- Save Healing Hands for emergency situations.
- You can use Rebuke in place of Devouring Orb to tank dangerous Boss abilities.
Gear, Idols & Blessings
- Stack Strength, Block Chance and Block Effectiveness on gear to scale your Damage and Defenses.
- The Inscribed Tablet Relic Base is mandatory for its Mana cost reduction. If you don't have it, build Mana Regeneration on your gear.
- Event Horizon provides incredible Damage with its Dilation buff. The Attack Speed penalty does not affect Shield Bash. For mapping, use Evade often to maintain your Movement Speed. Monument of Protection is an option if you don't have Event Horizon, but the Damage will be significantly lower.
- Foot of the Mountain grants useful stats, and the Mana reduction is needed for Boss fights.
- Siphon of Anguish and Shattered Chains provide a large boost to your Damage with Doom.
- Horns of Uhkeiros grants a ton of Block Effectiveness and Strength.
- Oceareon provides Chill, Shock and Damage. Red Ring of Atlaria and Flames of Midnight are great alternatives.
- Mantle of the Pale Ox redirects up to 24% of the Damage you take to your Ring Of Shields, greatly increasing your tankiness. Additionally, it grants many valuable stats.
- Pearls of the Swine is used for its stats and Resistances. A high rolled Nihilis is also an amazing option for the Amulet slot.
- Code of an Erased Sentinel is a Weaver's Will Unique that gains random Affixes. Try to get one with Strength.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Build Scaling
Offensive Stats
- Flat Physical Melee Damage
- Strength
- Block Chance
- Block Effectiveness
- % Increased Physical Damage
- % Increased Critical Strike Chance
- Critical Strike Multiplier
- Physical Resistance Shred
- Physical Penetration
- Armor Shred Chance
Defensive Stats
- Health
- Armor
- Endurance
- Block Chance
- Block Effectiveness
- Leech
Scaling Tips
- Iron Arms in Shield Bash provides multiplicative Damage scaling with Strength.
- Indomitable Force in Shield Bash enables Flat Damage scaling with Block Effectiveness.
- Shield Bash has a built in Damage multiplier with 1.5% More Damage per Block Chance, granting it 150% More Damage with capped Block.
- Shield Bash does not scale with Attack Speed from normal sources. However, Shieldstorm provides a source of it.
- 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.
- Armour Clad: Grants Damage Reduction.
- Mantle of the Pale Ox: Redirects up to 24% of the Damage you take to your Ring Of Shields.
- Immortal Vise: Up to 30% of Hit Damage taken from Bosses and Rares is dealt over 4 seconds instead. With the high Leech this build has, this effect is huge for survivability.
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 necessary 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 an excellent setup that performs well in endgame. It has great DPS and excellent 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 an absolute juggernaut thanks to these stats.
- Use Healing Hands to charge across the battlefield.
- Spam Shield Bash and destroy your enemies.
- While they are not mandatory, Horns of Uhkeiros, Siphon of Anguish and Shattered Chains are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Volca.
Content Reviewed by Lizard_IRL.