Shattering Palm Invoker Build Guide
Dash to your enemies with a single button and kick off an explosion of ice! This Shattering Palm Invoker Build Guide shows you everything you need to know to shatter your enemies. You use the brass-knuckled unarmed skill Shattering Palm to deliver huge clear and Frozen Locus for massive single target damage. Once you are up and running, this build only needs one button to obliterate anything that isn't a high difficulty map boss or Pinnacle boss.
Gem levels are the primary scaling vector in this build, increasing both your single target and clear with one gear affix. This allows you to spend more on defence and survivability.
Use Shattering Palm to dash across the screen and strike an enemy. This covers all nearby enemies in ice, allowing them to explode. When the enemy you strike is killed, it explodes, causing all of the nearby enemies to take damage from Herald of Ice and shatters the ice that you placed on them. Herald of Thunder continues this chain by freezing enemies that can then shatter and explode.
On bosses, simply add one more button to drop a Frozen Locus that you can strike, causing it to explode, dealing a devastating blow to the enemy.
You do not need specific resistances or attributes on any item, just get the required total resistances and attributes amongst all gear combined. You need to cap your Resistances at 75% unless otherwise specified in the guide!
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This guide assumes you are at least level 68 and have completed Act 3 Cruel, to learn more about the leveling process check out our leveling guide.
Skills
- Shattering Palm is your main skill that can leap across the screen and strike a single enemy, coating nearby enemies in ice and dealing a huge blow. The goal is to make this strike kill the enemy you dash to, causing a massive explosion. Getting to the highest possible gem level is more important than a 5th socket!
- Frozen Locus places a targetable object on the ground that when destroyed, creates a devastating cold hit to nearby enemies. Use your main skill to strike this object. Again, getting to the highest possible gem level is more important than a 5th socket.
- Herald of Ice causes frozen enemies to explode. This cannot freeze enemies directly, but it can shock them, allowing Herald of Thunder to cause new freezes on enemies, proliferating the explosions.
- Herald of Thunder can freeze enemies with enough Cold damage. This allows a proliferating chain of freezes and shocks, often blowing up the whole screen from a single strike.
- Cast on Critical is used to proc Eye of Winter to make enemies more likely to receive critical strikes. This also adds Sniper's Mark to enemies which makes them take more critical damage.
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Skill Rotation
- Map clear is as simple as dashing to an enemy with Shattering Palm. If the strike does not kill the enemy, strike again. This chains explosions and then you can dash to the next pack.
- For single target, dash to the enemy with Shattering Palm to coat them with ice and proc your eye of winter. Sometimes this can take a few strikes. Then drop Frozen Locus and target it with the next Shattering Palm to destroy it. Continue to alternate Frozen Locus and Shattering Palm as needed.
- For particularly challenging enemies such as Pinnacle bosses, place Orb of Storms before the boss spawns. The orb is a stationary object, which can be supported by gems such as Font of Mana and Font of Rage to generate Rage for more attack damage. Be sure to stay inside the radius to continue to generate Rage, then fight the boss as noted in step 2.
- Frozen Locus can be a great way to get out of trouble when you are overrun, as enemies target it and you jump back while placing, and the enemy damage can cause the ice crystal to explode.
- Before you have Cast on Critical, cast Eye of Winter at the start of a boss fight to add critical weakness.
Passives
- Transition to Chaos Inoculation when you feel you have enough Energy Shield (recommended minimum 3-4k). You also want to make sure you are using Grim Feast, a good Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour alongside Spectral Ward.
- In the early game, you should use First Approach to provide damage and Critical Hit Chance against full life enemies. The more Critical Hit Chance you have, the more you 1-shot enemies and therefore entire packs. Getting your critical strike chance to around 50% on Shattering Palm is the goal for mapping to feel smooth with Ambush, as this gets you to 100%.
- The mana cost nodes, Conservative Casting and Mental Toughness, are only necessary when your gem levels start to get well into the 30s. Allocate these as needed.
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Ascendancy
Learn how to complete the Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos to earn your first 2 Ascensions with our Ascension Guide!
- Lead me through Grace… causes you to gain Spirit per Energy Shield and Evasion on your Body Armour. This should be one of the first gear pieces you craft or purchase to reach enough Spirt to use all of your Passive Skills.
- Sunder my Enemies… is a huge Skill Point save once you have enough Critical Strike Chance, as it allows you to avoid needing any Cold Penetration nodes.
- I am the Thunder… adds Lightning damage to your skills, adding shocks and the ability to proliferate your heralds.
- Faith is a Choice allows you to meditate before battle, recharging your energy shield to double its maximum! This useful before boss fights or at the start of maps for more defences.
Gearing
Offensive Scaling
- Melee Skill Levels are the primary damage scaling in this build. This stat boosts both your Shattering Palm and Frozen Locus damage. Both of these skills scale insanely well with levels, making added damage less effective. Further, weapon damage does not work for either skill. You should prioritize gem levels over all other stats.
- Critical strikes are very important for scaling damage. This build gets access to 100% Critical Hit Chance against full health enemies once you have 50% crit chance and have Ambush slotted, so the Critical Damage Bonus stat is a very strong scaler. You should look for as much Critical Hit Chance and Critical Bonus as possible. It is important to remember that local critical mods on staves do *not* apply to your skills.
- This build does not need Penetration or Exposure due to Sunder my Enemies… ignoring Enemy Resistance for all Critical Hits. This is another reason why scaling Critical Hit Chance is so important.
Defensive Scaling
- Your suffix modifiers on your gear are very important as they have to fill a lot of mandatory rolls for the build to perform well.
- Cap your Fire, Cold, and Lightning Resistance.
- +# to Dex or Int to reach attribute requirements.
- Your Body Armour is important due to Lead me through Grace…. To reach the minimum Spirit requirements of 180 for this build you need a hybrid Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour that gives at least 600 Evasion Rating and 240 Energy Shield. If you get a little extra, you can add Clarity for 10 Spirit.
- Evasion is the primary avoidance layer of the build, and scales a bit from the tree (such as Subterfuge Mask) and a strong Body Armour.
- Energy Shield is huge for mitigating damage from 1-shots. Evasion can only help you against Strikes and Projectiles, for everything else you're relying on your pool of Health and Energy Shield.
- Grim Feast allows you to overflow your Energy Shield in maps to up to 2x the value making you much more durable to ground effects and slams that are otherwise unable to be evaded.
- If you are still struggling check out our Survival Guide for additional useful information!
Here's how you should gear your Shattering Palm Invoker. Sorted in order of importance:
Weapon
- The base is not a priority, but the best bases are Expert Barrier Quarterstaff and Expert Long Quarterstaff, as the implicits provide some Block Chance and increased range. The range makes it easier to strike moving targets with Shattering Palm.
- +# to Level of all Melee Skills (highest priority)
- +% Elemental Damage with Attacks (most important Prefix)
- +% Physical Damage
- Adds Physical Damage
- Adds Cold Damage
- Adds Lightning Damage
- +to Dexterity/Intelligence
- Gain # Mana per Enemy Killed
- 2x Soul Core of Citaqualotl
It is important to note that local damage on the weapon (added Cold/Lightning/Physical damage) does not help your unarmed attacks. However, it is still useful for your heralds' added damage, so you still want some Cold/Physical/Lightning damage (in that order). This should be your last priority on the weapon. Similarly, many other local modifiers do not help your unarmed attacks, such as life gain on hit, Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Bonus.
Body Armour
Helmet
Gloves
Boots
Rings
Amulet
Belt
Jewels
Atlas Passives
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- This build is great for both bossing and mapping, so it is up to you what content you want to take on!
- The more monsters there are, the better this build performs, so mechanics like Breach and Ritual are great.
- The build can do all map mods, but there are of course more dangerous ones like -#% To Maximum Elemental Resistances that you do at your own peril! Burning ground can also be very annoying. You can also avoid Monsters have #% increased Ailment Threshold because it causes your herald chains to fail to proliferate.
Learn about the endgame activities available to you in Path of Exile 2 with our guide!
FAQ
My Damage is low, what do I do?
Melee Skill Levels are far and away the most important affixes for you in this build. Prioritize them everywhere you can, and you can feel your damage increase exponentially! If you feel like your map clearing is poor, focus on a +7 to Melee Skills staff with a decent bit of Cold/Lightning/Physical damage as prefixes.
I struggle with my attributes, what should I do?
I keep dying! Is there any way to solve my defence?
What bonuses should I choose from relics in Act 2 and venom drought in Act 3?
How much Critical Hit Chance do I need?
I'm running out of mana, help!
Video
Summary
- Shattering Palm is a skill that can cover massive distances and deal a devastating blow, starting an explosion chain that can clear the screen.
- Frozen Locus creates an ice crystal capable of 1-shotting most enemies and easily chunking down bosses.
- Screen-wide clear and freezing even the tankiest of bosses keeps you safe from enemy damage.
- Simple, 1-button gameplay is satisfying and easy!
- Evasion and Energy Shield allow you to utilize Grim Feast as well as granting you Spirit from your Body Armour to enable all of your Skills.
Credits
Written by: aer0
Content Reviewed by: Crouching Tuna
Language Reviewed by: Tenkiei