In the Dawn of the Hunt league, the whole vibe has been brutal for hardcore solo players, but Lexd’s HCSSF Warrior run is on another level entirely. And here’s the crazy part – he’s ignored the meta completely. Just one skill, Shield Bash, from start to finish. No quick clears, no flashy combos. It’s all about surviving like a tank and crushing one enemy at a time. Through Act 1 the grind was real, but by Act 2, he was smashing his way forward, proving that with enough patience and timing, even a single skill can carry you up the ladder. You look at it and think, this is less of a “build” and more of a fortress in motion – PoE 2 Items in hand and enemies left bleeding and stunned behind.

The whole setup hangs off the Raise Shield skill. Hold to block, let go to hit like a truck. The harder your shield, the more it hurts, and the stun mechanic takes some clever planning to actually work in your favour. Early on, support gems were the lifeline. Brutality II kept the raw physical damage high enough to deal with bosses, while Bleed got swapped in later because it just scales better. It meant he could tag a boss, step back for a sec, and watch their life drain away. Pin I and Pin II were a lifesaver early game – turning stuns into pins so big packs didn’t leave him stuck in place. On the passive tree, he bee-lined straight for stun threshold nodes, then picked up armour, block chance and thorns damage. No ascendancy skills allowed, which made it all about the base Warrior stats, and somehow he made it stick.

Playing SSF meant every upgrade mattered. At first, he had this plain 93-armor shield. Then Act 2 dropped him a beast with 192 armor – bam, his bash damage nearly doubled. Bosses that used to feel endless suddenly melted faster. A lucky chest gave him Aryan’s Cobble Helmet, perfect resistances, extra life, and way less stress in chaos-heavy zones. He even crafted thorns jewellery from vendor scraps, adding a sneaky damage layer every time he blocked a hit. By the time Act 2 wrapped up, his effective health with block was somewhere near 5,000. That’s insane for solo self-found.

The boss fights in Act 2 felt like a mix of mind games and stamina tests. Wrathbreaker and Rattlecage didn’t stand a chance – they got stun-locked and deleted. The Kabala Constrictor Queen took ages; it was all about chipping away while staying alive. Then there was Zalmarath the Colossus – the fight everyone dreads. Twenty-two minutes of block, bleed, thorns, block again… Over and over until the thing finally fell. Watching him breeze through the Trial of Sekhemas was wild – that place wrecks melee players, but perfect block timing made it look easy.

If you ever thought Shield Bash was a joke build, this run just proved you wrong. In HCSSF, where staying alive is priority number one, it’s king. You start to enjoy the rhythm of block–bash, block–bash, until it’s second nature. Key tips? Go hard on stun nodes first, keep crafting better shields whenever you can, and don’t rush – timing beats speed here. Lexd’s already eyeing Act 3, and honestly, with the way things are going, a top 100 Warrior finish is looking possible. The shield meta might just be on the rise – acheter item poe 2.