Act 2 of Lexd’s Shield Bash-only Warrior in Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt league was something else entirely. If you thought the first act had tension, this stretch was a true grind that kept you glued to the screen. No flashy meta setups here – we’re talking one shield, one skill, and a whole lot of stubbornness. The trick is simple but brutal: hold up your block, then drop it for a slam that hits like a truck. Because the damage comes straight off the shield’s armour rating, swapping to a better one is like getting a free damage upgrade. Early game was all about trying not to get chain-stunned – a nightmare in this setup – but Lexd made it work. The upgrade pace felt like finding treasure, especially when you stumble over something that feels like it could change your game entirely, just like hunting for PoE 2 Items to squeeze every bit of power from your build.

What stood out most was how the build evolved. Starting with Pin for crowd control made sense against the small fry, but sooner or later you need raw damage for bosses. Switching to Bleed gave him that punch, steadily wearing down tough targets while Brutality II piled extra physical damage on top. The passive tree path was straightforward – straight into the bottom-left corner to grab every stun threshold, armour, and block node you can find. In SSF, you don’t have ascendancy gimmicks or trading shortcuts, so raw stats and game sense matter. The rhythm of the fights was all about timing blocks, then darting in for those bashes without eating a massive hit. Not fast, but safe as anything, and satisfying if you’ve got the patience.

Gear in SSF is always the long game, but here, each piece mattered tenfold. The jump from a 93 armour shield to a 192 armour one wasn’t just better defence – it doubled his damage output and made bosses melt twice as fast. A helmet drop with life and resists saved his skin in chaos-heavy zones. Handcrafted rings and amulets with thorns meant enemies were dying just from swinging at him, which fit perfectly into the bash-and-block loop. By the end, his effective health pool was sitting around the 5,000 mark with block active – ridiculous for that stage of the run.

Act 2’s bosses were real tests. Rattlecage was just a speed bump – gone in a few minutes. But Zalmarath the Colossus stretched into a 22-minute slugfest. Those moments were pure patience games, relying on bleeds and thorns to chip away while staying locked into perfect block timing. The Trial of Sekhemas, infamous for chewing up melee builds, was another high point, showing just how far skill with positioning and timing can take you. If anything, this run proves that Shield Bash isn’t a throwaway joke – it’s a weapon in the right hands. And with Act 3 looming, the road ahead feels wide open for more shattered shields and crushed enemies. For anyone who’s been tempted to try something off-meta, watching it pay off is a reminder that chasing your own fun can be just as rewarding as chasing ladder spots – especially when it’s backed by the kind of gear hunt you find with u4gm PoE 2 Items.