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Path of Exile Boneshatter Juggernaut Build Guide

In the world of Path of Exile (PoE), few builds can match the raw power, survivability, and sheer enjoyment of playing a Boneshatter Juggernaut. This build, stemming from the Marauder class, combines devastating physical damage with Path of exile currency a tanky defensive structure that can withstand some of the toughest fights in the game. Whether you're diving into deep delve content, farming for loot, or taking on high-tier bosses, the Boneshatter Juggernaut is an excellent choice that offers a unique balance between offense and defense.

In this guide, we will walk you through all the essentials to create an optimal Boneshatter Juggernaut build, from understanding the core mechanics of the build to selecting the right gear and skill gems. This will give you everything you need to maximize your tanking ability and damage output.

The Juggernaut Class: A Tanky Powerhouse

When choosing a class in Path of Exile, the Marauder is the go-to option for players who want to be on the front lines of battle. The Juggernaut ascendancy, in particular, emphasizes tanking and resilience, making it one of the most durable classes in the game. This class excels in damage mitigation, life regeneration, and physical damage output, making it an ideal choice for the Boneshatter skill.

Boneshatter is a unique skill that causes AoE (area of effect) physical damage when you stun an enemy, and its damage scales with the number of trauma stacks you accumulate. The problem with this skill is that the more trauma stacks you accumulate, the more damage you take from those stacks. This self-inflicted harm is the reason why the Juggernaut’s tankiness is so crucial for this build. By utilizing the Juggernaut’s passive defenses, you can mitigate the damage taken from trauma, allowing you to stack damage while surviving intense hits.

Key Gears and Items for the Boneshatter Juggernaut Build

To ensure your Boneshatter Juggernaut can perform at its peak, you’ll need to equip the right gear. Here are some of the best items that will complement your build and enhance your effectiveness:

Despot Axe

The Despot Axe is a two-handed weapon that provides a significant boost to physical damage (60%), which is essential for maximizing your damage output with Boneshatter. It also improves accuracy to ensure your strikes land more consistently. Furthermore, the axe increases your attack speed, which helps stack trauma and triggers the AoE damage faster. The chance to impale enemies with each strike can add substantial bonus damage, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your build.

Royal Burgonet (Helmet)

The Royal Burgonet is a fantastic helmet for the Boneshatter Juggernaut due to its ability to convert 9-10% of physical damage taken into life. This property helps counteract the damage you receive from trauma stacks. Additionally, the helmet increases maximum life and provides resistances to cold, fire, and lightning damage, ensuring that you’re well-equipped to handle multiple damage sources from enemies.

Devout Chainmail (Body Armor)

As a Juggernaut, armor is crucial to your survival, and the Devout Chainmail excels in this department. It provides a massive increase to armor and energy shield, significantly boosting your physical damage mitigation. The added chaos resistance and health regeneration also help you endure prolonged fights, ensuring that you can stay in the thick of battle without worrying about dying.

Amethyst Ring

The Amethyst Ring is ideal for the Boneshatter Juggernaut as it boosts your chaos resistance, which is a key resistance type that many builds overlook. With the additional accuracy and life bonuses, the Amethyst Ring helps you improve both your survivability and your ability to land consistent hits on enemies, making it an important piece of gear for this build.

Turquoise Amulet

The Turquoise Amulet provides dexterity and intelligence, which can improve your overall accuracy, life, and damage output. For a Boneshatter Juggernaut, you need to make sure your accuracy is high enough to hit enemies consistently, and this amulet helps with that while also boosting your survivability with the added life.

Tanu Ahi (Gauntlets)

The Tanu Ahi Gauntlets offer a great balance between attack speed, armor, and evasion. The key benefit for this build is the ability to convert damage dealt into life, allowing you to sustain yourself throughout long encounters. The added adrenaline or onslaught bonus grants a significant boost to your damage, increasing your combat efficiency during fights.

Stygian Vise (Belt)

The Stygian Vise is a critical part of the Boneshatter Juggernaut build, as it boosts your maximum health while also providing essential resistances to chaos and fire damage. The added health ensures you have enough buffer to survive the self-inflicted damage from trauma stacks, while the resistances keep you safe from elemental attacks, which are prevalent in high-level content.

Vaal Greaves (Boots)

The Vaal Greaves are essential for reducing shock chances and increasing life regeneration. These boots help you manage high-damage situations by reducing the chances of being shocked (which can severely impact your survivability), and the life regeneration ensures that you’re constantly healing during fights. The movement speed boost also provides added mobility to help you reposition or escape tricky situations when necessary.

Skill Gems to Pair with Boneshatter

Now that you have your gear sorted, the next step is to select the right skill gems to complement your build. Here are the most important skill gems that synergize with Boneshatter and the Juggernaut ascendancy:

Divergent Boneshatter

This variant of the Boneshatter skill enhances both AoE damage and physical damage, making it the optimal choice for your primary damage dealer. The downside is that it increases the damage you take per trauma stack, but this can be mitigated by the Juggernaut’s damage reduction and life regeneration. With the right gear and passive tree, this skill will turn you into a destructive force while maintaining your survival.

Ancestral Protector

This totem skill increases your attack speed and deals melee damage to enemies. It works as a great damage booster, especially during boss fights or large packs of enemies. The totem’s ability to accelerate your attack speed lets you build up trauma stacks quickly, maximizing the damage of your Boneshatter skill in group scenarios.

Determination

Determination is a vital aura skill for any Juggernaut. It increases your armor and that of your allies, greatly enhancing your physical damage mitigation. This aura is indispensable for the Boneshatter Juggernaut, as it helps you endure the self-inflicted damage from trauma stacks while improving your overall survivability during tougher fights.

Phantasmal Leap Slam

This mobility skill is a great tool for repositioning quickly during combat, and it also deals damage to enemies while knocking them back. It serves as both an offensive and defensive skill, allowing you to control the battlefield and escape dangerous situations when necessary.

Cast When Damage Taken

The Cast When Damage Taken gem automatically casts linked skills when you take a specific amount of damage. This is useful for activating defensive spells or health restoration abilities without needing manual input. It’s essential for improving your survivability, particularly in high-damage fights.

Conclusion

The Boneshatter Juggernaut build is a powerhouse in Path of Exile, offering both substantial damage output and exceptional survivability. By carefully selecting the right gear, skill gems, and passives, you can create a build that can take on even the most challenging content PoE has to offer. Whether you’re farming loot or battling bosses, the Boneshatter Juggernaut provides a balanced, fun, and effective playstyle that ensures you can both dish out and absorb punishment. With the right investment in POE currency for your gear, this build becomes an unstoppable force on the battlefield. Happy adventuring!