In the Dawn of the Hunt league, the hardcore crowd’s been pushing limits, but Lexd’s HCSSF Warrior run is something you do not see every day. No flashy meta skills, no gimmicks – just Shield Bash, all the way. From Act 1’s grind into Act 2’s tougher fights, he’s turned what many call a “niche” skill into a weapon for climbing the ladder. It is not about blasting the whole screen in one click. This is slow, deliberate, block-heavy fighting – stun, bleed, repeat. If you have ever thought single-skill runs lack punch, you might want to take a look at PoE 2 Items and see why gear choices matter so much here.
The key to the build is Raise Shield. Hold to block; let go and smash. Your damage grows with your shield’s armor stat, and your stuns depend on hitting the right threshold, which is trickier than it sounds early on. Support gems make a huge difference. Brutality II cranks up pure physical damage, perfect for those boss fights. Bleed replaced an earlier setup because it scales better for tougher enemies, letting him reposition while enemies tick down. Early game, Pin I/II was a lifesaver – turning stuns into pins so he would not get stuck in the middle of a crowd. His passive path dives bottom-left, chasing stun threshold nodes first, then stacking armor, block chance, and thorns damage. Without any ascendancy skills, it puts the spotlight entirely on the Warrior’s base toolkit.
Playing SSF changes the grind completely. Lexd started with a humble 93 armor shield in Act 1 and landed a monster 192 armor drop in Act 2 – which practically doubled his bash damage. Suddenly bosses were falling twice as fast. The Aryan’s Cobble Helmet was another lucky pickup, adding life and resistances that proved essential in chaos-heavy zones. Vendor-crafted thorns jewelry fitted right into the plan, punishing every blocked hit. By the close of Act 2, his effective health with perfect block uptime was sitting somewhere near 5,000 – massive for SSF.
The boss fights told the real story. Wrathbreaker and Rattlecage went down easy, caught in stun-lock hell. Kabala Constrictor Queen was slower – more about patience than brute force. Then came Zalmarath the Colossus, almost twenty-two minutes of grinding it down with bleed stacks and thorns chip damage. Each fight was about perfect timing – block, wait for that tiny opening, then bash. Even tricky zones like the Trial of Sekhemas, which most melee builds hate, looked simple in his hands thanks to the constant blocking rhythm.
Lexd’s showing that Shield Bash is no joke – in HCSSF, survival beats raw damage, and this build feels like piloting a fortress on legs. For players chasing a different kind of challenge, it’s worth trying: hunt stun nodes, keep crafting shields, and get into that block-then-bash flow. Act 3 is on his radar now, and with this pace, a top 100 Warrior finish is not far-fetched. If you are jumping in yourself, check out cheap PoE 2 Items to make the grind a bit smoother.
