Shattering / Splitting Steel Impale Champion Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links

Passive Skill Tree and PoB Link

This is the Endgame Goal Passive Skill Tree for the build. We focus on picking up all the efficient Impale, Sword and Crit nodes along the way, as well as a ton of health, some defensive clusters, as well as all the relevant Keystones (Call to Arms and Point Blank).

You can find the Path of Building for the Endgame Goal right here. This PoB was created using the PoB Community Fork, managed by LocalIdentity. If you are using the official Path of Building, developed by OpenArl, you might not be able to access all the relevant information. We recommend switching over to the Community Fork for the best experience.

This is the Leveling Passive Skill Tree for the build. Try to aim to pick up these nodes FIRST, before moving onto the Endgame Goal Tree.

Make sure to read the items and skill group names for additional information.

Gems

Shattering Steel OR Splitting Steel will be our signature skill, which should ideally be used in a 6-Link. For mobility, you should use Leap Slam. Blood Rage is an offensive buff that should be active all the time once you have enough Life Regeneration to sustain it. Vaal Molten Shell provides great amount of on-demand damage mitigation.

Your ideal buff setup looks like this: Pride, Flesh and Stone, Dread Banner, and Herald of Purity, in addition to Enduring Cry.

For all the gem links we provide below, keep in mind that we list the gems in order of priority, meaning that if you lack the required number of sockets to fit all the gems, the first ones to drop are the ones at the bottom. Also note that in-game, as long as the sockets are linked, it makes no difference at all what order the gems are placed in.

Shattering/Splitting Steel (6-Link)

Shattering Steel and Splitting Steel are ranged attacks. For this particular build we dual wield One-Handed Swords, which allows us to stack Impales very fast. We recommend one link that works great for both clearing and single target. We will only be using ONE of the two Steel abilities, but I don’t know which one performs better yet, without being able to test them. The exact same setup should work perfectly fine for both abilities, however. So simply gem-swap them and figure out which one you prefer!

1. Shattering Steel OR Splitting Steel
2. Vicious Projectiles Support
3. Brutality Support
4. Slower Projectiles Support
5. Maim Support OR Greater Multiple Projectiles Support
6. Concentrated Effect Support OR Increased Critical Damage Support

I highly highly recommend Greater Multiple Projectiles Support for your Shattering Steel setup, once you get yourself a 5-link. It makes the ability an unfathomable amount better at clearing maps.

For your end-game setup, featuring the slow iAS weapons Paradoxica and The Saviour, the following will likely be our best-in-slot gem setup:

1. Shattering Steel
2. Brutality Support
3. Slower Projectiles Support
4. Maim Support
5. Greater Multiple Projectiles Support
6. Concentrated Effect Support OR Increased Critical Damage Support

As Vicious Projectiles Support applies a 10% LESS attack speed multiplier, it heavily impacts the attack speed of these slow base weapons. It is better to switch it out for something else, for QOL purposes.

Since 3.15, we no longer use Impale Support in this build, as it does not provide us with enough of a damage increase to justify it’s slot. Instead we take an additional cluster on the passive tree and add a full-damage support.

Ancestral Protector, Blood Rage & Portal (3-Socket)

Ancestral Protector will be your boss buff, which you can place down to gain a large boost in your attack speed for a short time. Place it together with your Blood Rage and Portal gems into one of your weapons. Use your Blood Rage on cooldown. You want to make sure it is active 24/7.

1. Ancestral Protector
2. Blood Rage
3. Portal

Leap Slam (4-Link)

Leap Slam is your main mobility skill which will let you dodge lethal game mechanics and make you more time-efficient in general, by allowing you to cover great distances very rapidly and also jump over pit-falls or other environmental blocks.

1. Leap Slam
2. Faster Attacks Support
3. Lifetap Support
4. Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support OR Culling Strike Support

Vaal Molten Shell (4-Link)

Vaal Molten Shell provides great damage mitigation when needed; the skill must be activated manually for maximum efficiency. Be advised, that despite VMS (and as an extension MS) being linked with Cast when Damage Taken Support, you will still have to activate it manually, as it will be too high level to automatically trigger. We simply make use of the Increased Duration Support socketed in the same 4-link, to apply it to both the Enfeeble being triggered by CWDT, as well as our VMS/MS when we use it ourselves.

1. Vaal Molten Shell
2. Increased Duration Support
3. Cast when Damage Taken Support (level 3)
4. Enfeeble (level 7)

Other Gems

Pride, Flesh and Stone, Dread Banner and Herald of Purity is your ideal buff setup; you will likely require at least one level 4 Enlighten Support in order to properly fit everything, depending on your Mana pool. If you don’t have the Mana yet to sustain all 4 buffs, remove the Herald of Purity.

Blood Rage should be active all the time, same with Enduring Cry. Simply put the cry on your left-click and it will automatically trigger on CD. As we have the “Call to Arms” keystone, the cast is instant and does not interrupt your overall play at all.

Make sure to pick up a Poacher's Mark as soon as possible (“Lost in Love” Act 3), to greatly enhance your single-target damage. Simply mark the boss you’re fighting and you’ll have a WAY easier time, as it provides a great deal of flat damage, overwhelm and life/mana on hit throughout the fight.

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